Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
by Mutitoon90
Summary: Half of a year has passed, and Neo Cortex has returned; this time, Uka-Uka, Aku-Aku's evil twin brother, is free and has called Doctor Nefarious Tropy to cause chaos using the Time Twister. It is up to Crash, Nathan and Aku-Aku to stop the bad guys from taking the power gems for their evil plans, and Coco, Luna and Sash are helping them in stopping the terrible trio's plans.
1. Chapter 1

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter One

It had been six months since Neo Cortex tricked Crash Bandicoot into helping him get the power crystals, but Nathan Charles, Luna, and Sash the wolf, and his sister, Coco helped Crash realize that Cortex has lied to him, and Crash stopped the 'scientist' from brainwashing the world. Since that time, things have been quiet with the expection of the fighting between nighbors and speices.

"All right!" Nathan yelled at the koalas and the dingos, "Get away from each other!"

The two groups of mammals obeyed the human, who was accompanied by Luna and Sash, the duo that can become a 'werewolf' by fusing together.

"Luna, talk to the dingos and see what's the problem." Nathan commanded the girl, who replied, "I know what's wrong: the dingos have been lifing their legs on the koalas' trees, and the koalas have been throwing fruit at the dingos for that reason."

Nathan sighed deeply and out of annoyance. At the moment, he believed that Luna was trying to annoy him.

* * *

At the Bandicoots' house, Crash was trying to play with a red yo-yo, which Nathan gave to him, Coco was surfing the Internet on the laptop, Polar was napping, and Aku-Aku was mediating.

"I can't get 'Walking the Frog'!" Crash yelled in fury.

"It's 'Walking the Dog', Crash." Coco corrected her older brother.

"Whatever!" The male bandicoot yelled, waking up Polar. Then he turned his attention back on doing the trick right.

Aku-Aku heard this and smiled a little, happy to hear the siblings.

* * *

In the blimp above the islands, Brio, who watched for any sign of trouble, had been watching for pieces of Neo Cortex's space station, but on his off-time, he had been changing animals into evolved, human-like versions of themselves to increase the island's population.

"Oy, Doc!" An Aussie-sounding voice rang out to Brio.

"Yes?" The doctor answered without looking away from his work.

"A piece of the station's falling to Wumpa Island!"

The news caused Brio to leave his work and run to the phone to call Nathan.

* * *

"All right!" Nathan announced, "Dingos, do your business on some other trees, just not koalas' trees. Koalas, stop throwing the fruit at them; by throwing the fruit and allowing it to stay on the ground for days at a time, the birds are getting drunk!"

"And if we refuse?" A male dingo wearing a white shirt and black pants asked.

"Then, you guys answer to us." Luna stepped forward to Nathan's side, and Sash followed her friend.

The dingo backed off, knowing of Luna's and Sash's powers and capiabilities.

"I thought so." The girl grinned.

Then, a buzzing noise rang from Nathan's wrist.

"Who's calling now?" The boy asked in annoyance.

As Nathan answered his watch, Sash's ears perked up, turned to the sky, and started to growl.

"Hello?" The male human asked.

_"It's Brio! I have some big news!"_

"What is it?" Nathan asked, hearing the concern in the older man's voice.

Then, a loud rumbling noise was heard by everyone on the three islands. It was so loud that Nathan could not heard Brio.

_"I think it's the space station!" _Sash's thought entered Luna's mind.

Luna did not answer, because she could barely hear Sash, as a giant object flew over their heads and into the ruins.

Once the object crashed into the ruins, Nathan asked Brio again.

_"I said that it was heading to the ruins." _Brio's voice rang out.

"Uh," Nathan stated, "it's a little late for that."

"That doesn't look good." Luna announced to her friends, knowing the ruins were Professor Roo lived.

Then, a dark, horrible laugh rang out to the ears of everyone who lived on Wumpa Island.

"And that doesn't sound good!" Nathan announced.

"I better check on the residents." Luna said before running off with Sash are behind her.

Nathan knew there is no stopping Luna, when her mind is made up, so he went to the Bandicoots' house.

* * *

When the space station smashed into the ruins, the Bandicoots, Polar, and Aku-Aku took great notice to this event. The group stood still until the evil laughter was heard.

"It cannot be!" The mask exclaimed upon hearing the laugh, as if he was familiar with the voice.

"What is it?" Coco asked, very worried about the mask.

"Evil has returned to the islands!" Aku-Aku replied before entering the house.

Coco, concerned, turned to her brother and Polar.

"Evil?"

Crash thought for a moment before he answered.

"Well, I know it can't be Cortex. He's evil but not that evil to make Aku-Aku scared."

Polar just listened to the conversation between the siblings as Coco asked again.

"Why don't we ask him about it?"

"Good idea, Sis." Crash agreed, rolling up the string of the yo-yo.

The Bandicoots ran into the house and closed the door, leaving poor Polar outside. Inside, Crash and Coco saw the mask facing the lit fireplace.

"Are you okay?" Crash asked, sharing his sister's concern.

"No." The mask sighed sadly.

"What's wrong?" Coco inquired the ally.

"It is about..." The mask started, but he refused to finished.

"Hey," announced the male of the bandicoots, "we're a team and a family. We work together and help each other. So, whatever you have in your mind, speak it out."

Aku-Aku turned and smiled at the siblings before he answered.

"It is about my brother."

Crash and Coco were stunned, because they never knew that Aku-Aku had a brother.

"Brother?" The siblings asked, turning to each other.

"Yes." The mask replied, "The voice you heard belongs to my brother, Uka-Uka."

"Uka-Uka?" Coco asked, confused about the name of Aku-Aku's brother.

"Not very creative on the names." Crash mumbled.

The comment earned him an elbow to the ribs from Coco, who hissed, "Don't be rude!"

"Don't worry about it, Coco." The mask said, "Names for twins do not need to be very creative as long as the names connect the twins."

"Oh!" Crash said, finally realizing the lack of creativity was not exactly an intended act.

Then, a knock was heard at the door.

"I'll get it!" The younger of the Bandicoot siblings announced as she went to the door.

Coco opened the door and saw Nathan and Polar, who ran inside.

"Nathan, it's good to see you!" The female bandicoot smiled happily.

"Same here." The boy smiled sadly, "I only wish that it was on better terms."

"The fallen station..." Coco said, knowing what Nathan meant.

"As well as who or what was freed from the ruins." The human added grimly.

"I was afraid you were gonna say that." Coco announced.

"What's going on?" Nathan asked, just noticing the mask's gloomly expression.

Crash turned to his friend and replied, "We're about to find out about Aku-Aku's brother."

Nathan thought for a few seconds before announcing that they should wait until Luna and Sash were with them.

"What?" Coco exclaimed loudly, annoyed at the human's suggestion.

"Why?" Crash asked, more confused than annoyed.

"Well..." Nathan started, blushing.

"Spit it out!" Coco yelled.

Her shouting earned her getting a noogie from Crash.

"Give 'im a chance." The brother said.

"Thanks." A nervous and thankful Nathan said to his friend.

"Not a problem." Crash winked, "Just start talking."

"All right." The human sighed, "It happened two months before returning to the Wumpa Islands. I was in the meeting with Brio and the others, but I did not included Luna and Sash. I thought that the girls wouldn't be interested in meetings. After the meeting, I was confronted by a very outraged and very human Luna. She told me with I left her and Sash out of another meeting, she was going to hurt me."

"Yeah, right!" Crash laughed out.

"You wanna bet?"

Crash looked at the opened door and saw Luna and Sash.

"Hi, girls." The bandicoot hero greeted sheepishly.

"Hi, Crash." Luna grinned evilly.

* * *

Meanwhile in the farther parts of space, Cortex was on his knees, fearful for his life, dispite the fact that he managed to survive in space for six months, but he knew that the mask in front of him can and would end his life. The mask was dark-looking, espeically with the bones hanging from it.

"How dare you fail me?" The mask roared at Cortex.

"Uka-Uka, it's not my fault!" The 'doctor' begged, but it failed.

"Don't bother!" The mask yelled, "You have failed twice! But...since it was due to the second failure that freed me, I am feeling...generous."

"Oh, thank you, Great Uka-Uka!" Cortex bowed to the evil mask.

"Stop that and listen!" The mask roared, "This time, I will make sure you will not fail me, and speaking of time, I have someone in mind."

Then, the two disappeared into a dark portal.


	2. Chapter 2

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Two

After Nathan stopping Luna from hurting Crash, Aku-Aku started explaining about his brother, Uka-Uka.

"It was many eons ago, when my brother stayed to practice the darker part of the magic of the islands. He learned and studied to the evil magic, and soon he was corrupted. He was about to send the islands into an era of darkness. So, to stop him, I fought him, using the good magic. I prevailed, but at the price of losing my life and my spirit being trapped in my mask."

"So, you watched over the islands to make sure your brother doesn't escape his prison." Nathan guessed, which he was correct.

"Yes." The mask replied before stating, "Now, he's free, prepared to get avenge himself."

"Avenge!" Crash and Coco exclaimed at the mask.

"So, he'll be too busy trying to get rid of you to notice that we can defeat him." Luna grinned darkly.

"He's too powerful!" Aku-Aku dismissed Luna's statement, "He'll notice you for sure."

"So, we must be careful." Nathan announced. Then, a moment of thought led the boy to notice something else.

"He might earn an ally, if he is to follow though with his plan."

"Like Neo Cortex?" Coco asked.

A short time of silence came and went before the whole room was filled with loud laughter at the thought that Uka-Uka having Cortex as an ally.

"Now, that's funny!" Crash howled out in the middle of his hard laughter.

"You're right!" Luna giggled out, "It is too funny!"

Then, an all too familiar, yet unwanted, voice rang out to the group.

"Well, well, if it isn't Crash Bandicoot and friends."

"Oh, shi-" Luna started, but Nathan covered her mouth.

The group turned to the direction of the voice and saw a transparent, yet visible, Neo Cortex.

Removing his hand from Luna's mouth, Nathan said to girl, "You can finish it."

"It." Luna ended her statement.

"Oh, yeah." Coco agreed with the human girl.

"You!" Crash yelled at the little man and enemy to all of the residents of the Wumpa Islands.

"Well, I'm glad that I'm remembered." Cortex said with an awful grin on his face.

"What if we told we remember as an enemy?" Coco asked.

"Makes me feel better." The short man said, still keeping his grin.

"What do you want?" Nathan demanded, and Crash added, "We're in the middle of a crisis."

The mad man grinned evilly as he replied.

"I know; I work with Uka-Uka."

There was an uproar in the room.

"You snake!" Crash yelled.

"You monster!" Coco shouted.

"Dammit!" Luna growled with Sash, who glared at the vision.

"Cortex, think what you're doing!" Nathan demanded of his biological uncle.

"I know what I'm doing: taking over the world!" The small man answered evilly.

"If you are planning to conquer the planet with Uka-Uka, we will stop you." Aku-Aku announced to Neo Cortex's image.

"I'm not working with just Uka-Uka. I have time by my side.

"What do you mean?" Crash asked, expecting the answer from Cortex.

Then, Nathan communicator rang, causing the boy growled at the watch-like device.

"What is it now?" The boy hissed before answering the communicator in a calmer voice, asking, "Brio?"

_"Nathan,"_ Brio's voice rang out, _"the strangest thing just happened: someone took my assistant!"_

"Your assistant?" Nathan asked, "Dingodile?"

Dingodile, who was a rejected experiment by Cortex, was found by Brio on Gun Island. After some time teaching him how to behave and manners, Dingodile become Brio's assistant.

"What happened?" Nathan asked.

_"A strange man appeared out of a silver sphere, and the next thing I knew, the man and Dingodile were gone." _Brio explained quickly.

Nathan looked at Cortex, who had a nasty grin on his face, and said to Brio, "I'll talk to you later."

_"But, Nathan-"_ The voice tried to protest, when shut down the communicator.

Nathan glared at his uncle and demanded him to explain by saying, "What are you up to this time?"

"Nothing." Cortex replied darkly, "Just stay out of my way, if you kids know what's good for you." Then, the image disappeared.

"Dammit!" Luna swore out, ready to search and destory Cortex on sight.

"Calm down." Nathan said to the girl, grabbing the human female's wrist, "We'll get our chance soon enough."

"What do ya mean?" The hostile girl asked the calm boy.

"First, we need to find him," Nathan explained, "then, we can hurt him."

A few moments of thought, Luna calmed down and said with a mischievious grin, "All right."

"But what are we gonna to do?" Crash asked.

Nathan was about to say something, but he stopped, knowing nothing of the next course of action. The human turned to the mask and asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

The mask smiled as he replied.

"I do, but I need some help."

As Nathan and Crash looked at each other, Coco asked the mask, "Why?" The bandicoot was concern about the means to stop Cortex.

"To follow my brother and Cortex, I need help, like they had." Aku-Aku replied, "I believe that the crystals may be of some use."

"The power crystals?" Luna asked out loud, "Those things haven't seen action in at least a few months."

"Then, we better get them." Nathan stepped forward to the human girl, "Luna, will you a well-behaved girl and get the crystals, please?"

"What are you talking about?" The seventeen-year-old girl asked, "I thought you had the crystals."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed, "You had the crystals after we blew up the remaining parts of the space station."

"Yeah." Luna admitted, "Coco told me that you needed them for some teleporting project."

"WHAT!" The boy of still seventeen yelled before turning to the girl bandicoot, who was trying to sneak out of the house. Nathan took a deep breath to calm himself, but it was in vain as he yelled out Coco's name. Coco heard this and turned to the boy, who was very furious at her as he asked a question.

"Where are the crystals, Coco?"

The bandicoot looked at her feet as she answered.

"I wasn't lying to Luna about the teleporting project. I needed them to power the teleporting machine that's in the garage."

"Coco..." Nathan growled at the she-bandicoot, when Aku-Aku spoke up.

"Wait!" The colorful mask defended Coco, "She may have helped us in our time of need."

"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked the mask.

Luna went to Coco and said, "Maybe with the crystals in the machine, we could be able to catch up with Cortex."

"That's sounds like a great idea!" Crash shouted, not really knowing what Luna was talking about.

"Yeah," Nathan announced after some thought, "like an amplifier."

"Huh?" Crash asked, still confused.

Nathan and Luna looked at each other, hoping that the other would explain to the Bandicoot. Coco, however, stepped forward and spoke to her brother.

"Crash, we'll show you."

Coco ran to the garage with Nathan, Sash, Aku-Aku and Luna followed behind, leaving Crash by himself.

"Crash, get over here!" Luna yelled out.

Polar ran after the group, hearing Luna. Crash hurried to the garage, which was really Coco's lab filled with machines and devices.

Once in the lab, Crash saw that Luna and Coco were fighting.

"Coco, we need the crystals to fight!" Luna pointed out.

"But we need the crystals to power the machine!" Coco countered the first point.

Crash, as well as Nathan, Aku-Aku, Sash and Polar, was helpless against the fury of the two females, waiting to be somewhere else. The enemy of Neo Cortex was a little confused about a single fact, which he voiced.

"Why doesn't Sash stay behind for a few moments before entering the portal to catch up with the crystals?"-

The others heard this and was fairly shocked at the statement that Crash made. Crash is not one to be consider to be smart.

"That's a good idea." Luna was the first to say.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed. Then, he talked to both Luna and Coco, "Now, you two can stop fighting long enough to stop my uncle."

"All right." Luna grinned a toothy smile, "At least until fter we stop Cortex's current hair-brained scheme."

"Aku-Aku," Coco turned to the mask, "now that we have a plan, you need to get ready."

"Understood." Aku-Aku replied to the she-bandicoot, "I do not know where to go, though."

"Oh!" The girl bandicoot exclaimed, "Didn't think about that."

"Don't worry, Coco." Nathan said, "Just get the machine ready."

"Okay!" Coco replied before running off to the machine.

"Hey!" Luna realized something, "Where are the crystals?"

"Wait for a moment." Coco replied as she pressed a big, yellow button.

Then, all twenty-five crystals appeared out of the machine. The purple crystals still had a glow to them, like the Master Crystal.

"Wow." Luna laughed at herself, "I've forgotten what the crystals were really like."

Sash looked at the girl and gave a smile, showing that she knew that Luna was going to say that.

"So, now what?" Crash asked.

"Wait, you'll see." The human boy said to his friend. Nathan turned to Aku-Aku and said, "Aku-Aku, try to locate your brother." Then, he turned to Coco and commanded, "Coco, get that machine started."

"Right!" The girl bandicoot said before carrying out her order.

"What are we to do?" Luna asked the boy, pointing at herself and Sash.

Nathan turned to Luna and replied, "Luna, you stay with me and Crash. Sash, you stay behind to get the crystals."

"Right." Luna nodded her head, and Sash nodded as well. Luna went to Nathan and Crash, and Sash went to the crystals.

"I found them!" The mask announced, as the machine started up.

"Get ready." The nephew of Neo Cortex said, keeping everyone on their toes.

An anceint glow surrounded the mask before it converted into a sphere of cyan light. The ball flew from Aku-Aku and went to the machine's teleport pad. Once there, the glow turned into a portal.

"Now!" Nathan yelled out as he ran into the portal.

Crash, Aku-Aku, and Luna ran after the boy. Coco started her run, but Polar grabbed her pants' leg with his teeth.

"Sorry, boy." Coco said to the cub as she pushed Polar away, "You can't come."

Sash went between the human-like bandicoot and the polar bear cub. Coco went to the portal and entered the portal.

_"Why can't I come?" _The cub thought, which was replied by Sash, who 'said', _"You're here as a last line of defense, Polar."_

The cub looked at the wolf and 'asked', _"Really?"_

_"Sure."_ The wolf 'replied', _"We need you to stay here, just in case Cortex decides to visit the islands in person."_

_"You can count on me, Sash!"_ Polar 'announced' before running off.

_"Well," _Sash thought to herself, _"that takes care of one problem."_

The wolf turned into her spirit-like form, flew around the crystals, which started to follow her, and went into the portal, which closed behind her.


	3. Chapter 3

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Three

The group floated in the light for a few moments before landing on something metal. Being blinded by a light, the group cannot see anything for a moment.

"Talk about a blinding light." Luna joked as the group regained their sight.

"Not now, Luna!" Nathan growled at the girl, rubbing his eyes.

"Come on, Nathan!" Luna said, "One joke's not gonna harm no one."

"That's 'anyone!'" Nathan corrected the girl.

"Whatever!" Luna said, finished with the arguement.

"Guys!" Coco's voice rang out to the teens, which ended the quarrling.

The teens turned from each other and saw where they were: on top of a machine.

"Where are we?" Luna asked as Sash joined the group.

"A time-twisting machine?" Aku-Aku asked out loud.

"Time-twisting?" Crash asked the colorful mask.

The humans showed concern on their faces. Coco became worried upon seeing Nathan's and Luna's faces.

"Are we in trouble?" The smaller bandicoot asked the humans.

"'We?'" Luna asked. Then, she added, "Try 'everybody in the world.'"

"Oh, boy!" Coco exclaimed out loud.

"How's that bad for everyone?" Crash expressed his confusion.

Nathan stepped forward and explained to the male bandicoot.

"Crash, if this machine is involved with time, Cortex can go through time, changing history in his image!"

"That's not good!" Crash remarked at the statement.

"Hey, guys!" Coco yelled at the others.

The group turned to the female bandicoot, who was looking at a mirror-like sphere.

"What is that?" Coco asked the others.

"I don't know." Crash announced.

"Don't look at me." Luna said.

"I'm not sure," the boy said, "but I have an idea."

"What is it, Nathan?" Aku-Aku asked.

"Well," Nathan sthought out loud, "I believe it's part of the mechanics of this machine. This orb allows others to travel through time."

"Good theory." Luna said. Then, she pointed out, "How are we going to test it."

"How else?" Nathan replied, "We'll try to enter the sphere."

"What?" The bandicoots exclaimed.

"What else are we going to do?" Luna sighed out.

"You're kidding." Crash hoped out loud.

"I'm not," The girl said, "and either is Nathan."

"Why not?" Crash said without a thought going through his mind.

"This is gonna be fun!" Coco grinned, also excited about the adventure.

Then, three more silver orbs appeared out of nowhere.

"Look!" The mask announced to the group.

Luna turned and saw the spheres. Then, she said, "More time portals."

The others looked on as Sash went to Luna's side.

"She's right." Crash announced the apparent.

"Thanks." Coco said sarcastically.

Shaking his head, Nathan went to Luna. With a sigh, Nathan said, "So, we have to part ways to find our enemies."

"It looks like it." Luna nodded in agreement.

"But what is what they want?" Coco asked.

"I don't know for sure, but whatever they're up to, it cannot be good." Aku-Aku answered the question of the youngest of the group.

"Agreed." Luna agreed, allowing Sash to fuse into her body, changing into a wolf-girl.

"Now which one is what time?" Nathan pointed out.

"Who knows?" Crash said. Then, he added a grin and a statement.

"But I know a fun way to find out."

Nathan winced at the sight of the grin and turned to Coco, whose face mimicked her elder brother's face. Then, Nathan turned to Luna, whose facial expression said, 'They got a point.' Finally, he turned to Aku-Aku, who said, "Nathan, I know that you're being cautious, but that will not help us right now."

With a sigh of defeat, the human male asked the mask, "What are you going to do?"

"I will stay here." Aku-Aku announced, "I can enter and leave here as I wish, but I normally do not allow myself in indulge in such a pleasure."

"So, what?" Luna asked, "You use it for emergencies?"

"That is correct." The colorful mask replied with a kind smile, "All of you can call me by yelling my name, and I will send a portal, allowing you three to return here."

"Sounds like a good deal to me." Luna smiled widely.

Sighing in pure relief, Nathan felt much better about going to a different time, knowing that Aku-Aku can come to the recuse if problems in the time become difficult.

"Well, let's go!" Coco yelled as her brother gave a loud 'Ya-hoo'.

"Please," begged the kind and powerful mask, "be careful."

"Understood." Luna and Crash saluted in unison, while Nathan and Coco nodded in understanding.

Then in a dash, the Bandicoots siblings, the wolf-girl and the inventor jumped into each of the four portals. As each entered the portal, the portal disappeared, leaving Aku-Aku all alone.

"Good luck, my friends." The mask sadly said to the group of young heroes.

* * *

"Is everything going according to plan?" The gruff voice of Uka-Uka asked into the dark chamber.

The man, who answered, was not Neo Cortex. The man was taller than Cortex, had blue skin, black facial face and a giant tuning fork, and wore orange, silver and white armor which looked like parts of a clock.

"Cortex is doing his job, but there's a small problem."

"What?" The evil mask growled in fury.

"It seems that Cortex's enemies have followed us here."

The dark mask showed a sharp smile as he said, "Good. Then, everything is going according to plan."

Confused, the clockwork-covered man asked, "What do you mean?"

"Doctor Nefarious Tropy," Uka-Uka annouced, "I mean I will finally get my revenge!"

The chamber was filled with the echoes of the last word from Uka-Uka's mouth.


	4. Chapter 4

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Four

Crash felt like he was floating in air for a few moments. Then, he felt the familar pull of gravity on his body and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Ow!" The hero of the Wumpa Islands exclaimed in pain.

Crash picked himself up from the ground, rubbing his sore backside, when a foul smell entered his nose.

"Whoa!" Crash yelled out; his hands went to his nose, "That reeks!"

Then, the bandicoot took a look at his surroundings, seeing the plant life, which was familar and strange at the same time. Crash took a deep breath and felt the humid air flow throughout his lungs. After a sharp exhale, he took a mental note.

_'This isn't Wumpa Island.'_

Then, he started to explore the land. Unknown to the bandicoot, there were a pair of eyes watching Crash with great curiousity and wonder.

* * *

Coco coughed out of the dust that entered her lungs as she picked herself to her feet after falling out of the portal.

"Ow! That hurt!" The youngest member announced as she dusted herself and her clothes.

After removing as much dust as she could, she turned her attention to the enviroment she was in and saw that she was in a bamboo forest.

"Wow! I must be in ancient China!"

Then, her bandicoot ears picked up the sound of voices. This caused Coco to follow the sound and found the source of the voices: two men in Chinese clothing. She hid herself from the men to keep them from being frightened by her appearance.

In normal circumstanes, most people, who are not native to China, would have a difficult time understanding the two men, but Coco had no difficultly of understanding the men. To her, the men spoke prefect English.

Papu Papu came to Wumpa Island a week after Cortex's first defeat, and he wanted to speak with Crash and Nathan. Crash was the only one who could understand Papu Papu, because of the spell of understanding, and Nathan was not on the island at the time. This problem also gave the Papu tribe leader an idea. He used the same spell again, but this time it was used on the island, granting the evoled animals the gift of understanding any human language.

Coco was grateful for this gate, but there were times that she did not receive that gift. This was one of those times as she heard the noble-looking man and the lower-class man talked to each other..

"So, we have the tiger cub and its mother, I am right?" The man in blue asked the man in brown.

"We do have the cub," answered the peasant, "but the mother..."

"How can you allow this to happen?" The nobleman yelled at the peasant, "The Emperor will be most displeased."

Coco heard the tone of terror in the nobleman's voice, telling her that the Emperor was someone she did not to cross paths with, if not enrage. Coco listened on as the men spoke.

"I know how upset he would become when he dicovers the death of the mother, but think this: would you want to find out how anrgy he would become if the cub was dead as well?"

The nobleman placed his talon-like fingers on his chin, giving some thought about the peasant's words.

"What you speak might be true," replied the worried noble, "but it still does not forgive us for losing the mother to death or spare us the Emperor's fury."

"But the Emperor must hear us out." The brown clothed man said.

"He will not." The blue noble announced, "I've been in his court long enough to know better than to depend on simple wishing."

"We cannot escape his fury, so we must return to him with the cub." The peasant announced.

In a moment of defeat, the noble said, "If I am to lose my life, I will do so with honor."

"And I will do so myself." The peasant nodded in agreement.

Coco watched on as the two walked away from the area where Coco was hiding.

"That's horrible!" Coco exclaimed softly with her worries on the tiger cub, "What am I gonna do?"

Then, she heard a voice yell out an announcement.

"To the Imperial Palace!"

Coco heard this and got an idea. She knew that she had to act quickly or she'll be as good as dead, if not worse. Gathering her courage, she went out of her hiding place and dashed to a wagon. As she tried to regain her breath, a meek mew rang in her ears. She turned around and saw a baby tiger with the saddest amber eyes she had ever seen.

"You must be the cub that lost its mother?" Coco asked the cub, forgeting that her capabilities of understanding is limited to humans.

The cub still looked sad, causing Coco to realized her mistake.

"Oops!"

"I thought I heard a girl's voice over there." A voice spoke out, grabbing the bandicoot's attention.

"And it is a thought!" Another announced; the tone was in harsh disbelief.

"Oh, no!" Coco exclaimed under her breath.

The bandicoot looked for a place to hide. The cub mewed again, and Coco turned to the cub and got another idea. She jumped into the cage of the tiger and managed to squeeze through the bars and conceal herself in the hay before the two men came to the place where she stood a few moments earlier.

"I told you that you were dreaming of things." The second voice announced.

"I swear that I heard something." The first said, "You might be right."

The second voice laughed loudly and said, "You might be need of a wife! I will help you have one as soon as we return home."

The softer first voice made a quick laugh.

"I think you are correct."

The second voice laughed again and started to talk to the first voice as Coco carefully listened to the footsteps of the departing men. Once she heard no more footsteps or talking, she pulled herself out of the hay and was ready to escape from the cage, when something grabbed her leg.

"What?" Coco asked as she turned her head, and her eyes landed on the tiger cub's amber eyes, "You? Please, let me go. I'm on an important mission."

The cub refused to let her go and started rubbing its head on her leg. Seeing this, Coco gave a heavy, regretful sigh and said, "You win."

The cub purred as the bandicoot sat down next to it.

_"How could I be such a jerk!"_ Coco mentally yelled at herself, _"This little guy lost his mom not too long ago, and I had the nerve to say no to him. Man, I need to talk to Luna or Nathan when I get back home."_

A loud voice yelled out, "Forward!" Then, the cage jerked before it moved with the rest of the convoy.

"Looks like we're together in this." Coco announced to the cub, which was asleep in her lap.

* * *

Nathan fell to the ground after his entering the silver portal through time. Sitting up, Nathan looked around and found himself a very strange place.

"Now, this is weird." The boy announced to no one, "Where or when am I?"

He stood up and looked around. Finding no clues on the walls, Nathan went to the window, hoping for another clue. As he neared the window, Nathan saw something that caused him to step back: a shark!

"Whoa! Wasn't expecting that!"

Nathan neared the window again and saw the underwater world and everything in it: the sea life, the plants, and the ruins. Noticing the similar markings that he found on the walls, Nathan realized that he was in an underwater ruin.

"Nathan." A familiar voice rang out to him.

The dark-haired boy turned and saw the anicent mask that was Aku-Aku.

"What are you doing here?" Nathan asked the mask.

"I had to follow you," answered the mask, "I sensed a familiar aura from the portal, so I followed after you."

"Do you know where or when am I?" Nathan asked.

"I believe you are in Atlantis." Aku-Aku announced.

"Atlantis!" Nathan was shortly stunned upon hearing the name of the world he had found himself in, but he returned to his senses and said, "I'm in Atlantis!"

"It's really more towards what is left of the city in a year or so." The colorful mask smiled sheepishly at the boy.

"Really?" Nathan asked. "Well, that explains the smell of mildew."

Aku-Aku smiled as the boy made a sad and honest statement.

"Crash would probably prefer to be with a friend than by himself."

The mask smiled sadly as the thought of the bandicoot entered his mind. He could see Crash's goofy face. A laugh slipped out of his mouth as he recalled his first meeting with the bandicoot on Crash's and Nathan's first adventure.

"Aku-Aku?" Nathan's voice pulled the mask's mind back to reality.

"Huh?"

"Aku-Aku, we need a course of action." Nathan said.

"Oh, yes." The mask said, "Good thing that my powers go beyond those you have seen on the Wumpa Islands."

Nathan smiled with great confidence and asked, "How far beyond?"

* * *

"Ow!" Luna yelled out in pain when she landed on her 'tail'.

_"That's gotta hurt!"_

"Shut it!" Luna yelled at the silver wolf, who was fused with her body.

Then, a cold blast of wind hit Luna's body, causing to exclaim with a loud 'BRRRRR!' Sash flew out of Luna's body and changed into her form of a wolf. Luna gave Sash a dirty look, which caused the wolf to show a grin.

"Hey," the wolf spoke, "you have fur too, or did you forgot?"

"Sash, don't get smart with me." Luna growled, "You know how much I hate the cold."

"And that's why you haven't changed your form." Sash said, showing a smug smile.

"Oh, shut it!" Luna announced.

The human looked around for any sign of life. Failing to hide any life, besides herself and Sash, Luna took a deep breath before she went to her hands and knees. The girl started to growl like a beast as she felt her body increase in size and shape, causing great pain to the girl. The arms and legs became so muscular that the sleeves of the green shirt and the legs of the jeans tore from the pressure of trying to keep together. Brown and white hair grew out of very pore on her body, turning into a coat of fur covering her body. Her human ears started to convert into a point until they were wolf-like. The feet became longer and thinner by apperance, becoming paws. Her fingernails grew into claws, sharp and ready for almost anything. A brown tail popped out of the girl's jeans as it grew out of her spine.

"Luna, are you all right?" Sash asked with concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, Sash." The wolf-like creature replied in a growl-like voice. It turned to the silver wolf and gave the cocky grin only Luna gave to anyone she trusted.

The wolf sighed in relief. Sash knew about Luna's lack of self-control in her werewolf form, both pyshically and mentally. The person that has seen Luna in her werewolf form and took the time to understand her was Nathan; Dr. Brio was shocked at the girl's werewolf apperance and fainted. The boy saw Luna as herself, despite he quick shock at Luna's transformation.

"Luna," called out the human-like wolf, "we need to find out what Cortex is up to."

"Right!" Luna nodded in agreement.

Then, the duo of wolves ran off into the Ice Age.

* * *

In the age of the dinosuars and after an hour of looking around in the landscape, Crash recalled seeing drawings familar to the flora of the area.

"Wait a second." The bandicoot thought to himself, "These plants look like those...prehistoic plants that Nathan metioned a while ago. He also mentioned a name of the time where the plants lived in. Now, what was the name again?"

A noise of rustling bushes tore Crash from his thoughts. As Crash looked around, everything but the wind was still. Seeing nothing was wrong, he returned to his thoughts.

"Now, where was I?" Crash mused to himself.

Then, something rubbed against his leg. Crash looked at his leg...

"WHOA!"

He jumped a few feet away from the creature, which was an infant tyrannosaurus rex.

"I've got to be in _Jurassic Park_!" Crash yelled again.

The green dinosaur got frightened and went off in the bushes.

"Hey, wait!" Crash called out to the smaller reptile, "I didn't mean to scare ya; it's just that you freaked me out."

The infant dinosaur's appeared from the bushes and saw the bandicoot, who was trying to reach out to the dinosaur. The tyrannosaurus rex sniffed the offered hand, and then it licked Crash's hand. Crash pulled back his hand as the infant licked its lips for a moment until it shook its hean and struck out its tongue in disgust.

Seeing this, Crash laughed as he said, "Guess bandicoot's not your favorite favor."

The dinosaur looked at Crash, who petted the infant's head. Then, Crash noticed a shine from the bushes.

"What the...?" The bandicoot asked.

The dinosaur heard the question and looked at its new friend. It turned its gaze to the direction of Crash's attention. After a moment of thought, the infant dinosaur went to the shine.

"Hey!" Crash said to the tyrannosaurus rex, who returned with a clear gem in its mouth.

"Huh?" Crash touched the gem.

The dinosaur loosened the jewel from its mouth. The gem fell to the ground, but Crash caught the gem quickly.

"That was close." The bandicoot smiled and sighed in relief.

Then, Crash heard a strange humming noise from behind him. He turned and saw a silver, floating orb.

"What's going on?" Crash asked out loud.

Then, several cavemen-like beings exited from the sphere. Crash knew that the beings were Neo Cortex's robots.

"Talk about your lame attempts in blending in." Crash announced thoughtlessly, attracting the attention of the robots. Seeing this, Crash repeated a statement that often flew out of Luna's mouth.

"Oh, shit."

The robots advanced at the hero. Then, the human-like machines noticed the gem in Crash's hand. One of the robots made an anouncement upon seeing the clear object.

"Crash Bandicoot: Found. Status: Alive and in possession of a power gem. Objective: Destory Crash Bandicoot and retrieve power gem."

"I'll repeat myself: Oh, shit!" Crash responded to the announcement.

The robots attacked Crash with the weapons of clubs and spears that came with the attire. Many of the weapons fail to make contct with Crash, and all of the weapons that did were deflected by Crash's spin attack.

"Is that the best you guys got?" The bandicoot asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Then, a pair of hands grabbed Crash by the arms, and Crash started to struggle, but it was in vain, because the arms and hands were too strong to allow Crash to be released. This impartment allowed the robots to freely attack the trapped mammal.

"I'm in deep trouble." Crash announced to himself as the robots advanced towards him.

Then, a pair of jaws filled with sharpened teeth bit into the arm of Crash's captor and tore it off. The bandicoot was confused, but he realized that his attention was on the attacking human-like robots and mad an announcement.

"Okay! Playtime's over!"

With a few strong spins, Crash was able to defeat his metal foes, which were in pieces. Crash looked and found his rescuer, the tyrannosaurus rex, gnawing on the robotic arm.

"Thanks, pal."

The infant looked at Crash and showed a toothy grin to the bandicoot. Amused by the sight, Crash petted the creature.

"Looks like no one's looking out for ya, huh?" Crash asked.

The dinosaur tilted its head in confusion.

"Don't worry," grinned Crash, "I'll take care of you."

The dinosaur grinned at Crash, who turned his attention to the gem.

"By a guess, Cortex is after this." The bandicoot asked out loud to himself, "I better asked Aku-Aku about this later."

Then, he pocketed the gem and started off again. The baby dinosaur looked at the bandicoot as he walked away. With sad, tear-filled eyes, the infant started to go the other way.

"Hey, Baby-T!"

The tyrannosaurus rex turned around and saw its new friend looking at it.

"Are you coming or not?" Crash asked.

The dinosaur smiled as its eyes shined brightly as it went to Crash.

"Good thing is a friend." Crash smiled, recalling the first time he met Nathan. The memory of the meeting and the akwardness from the two friends caused Crash to release a laugh. Little did both nathan and Crash at the time that it would be the start of one and a half years of friendship and adventures.

Baby-T rubbed its head against the bandicoot's gloved hand, causing Crash to remember his mission.

"I better find a way back to the time twister machine." Crash said to himself and Baby-T.

Then, the two journeyed off into the area.

* * *

Back in China, the convey was in a halt to rest for the night. Darkness gave Coco the ideal means to escape.

"Perfect." Coco smirked as she exited the cage.

She was about to escape when a certain tiger cub grabbed her shirt.

"Hey!" Coco exclaimed softly at the tiger.

The cub refused to let the she-bandicoot go, not wanting Coco to leave him.

"Fine." Coco sighed in defeat, "Come along."

The cub purred as it followed Coco away from the company to the ruler of the nation. It took a few minutes until they heard a yell.

"The tiger cub is gone!"

"Uh, no!" A meekly and frightened Coco muttered out before she turned to the cub and said, "Come on! We have to go!"

The cub failed to understand the bandicoot, but when Coco ran off, it followed its rescuer. The voices of the convey yelled out into the night, scaring the escaping duo. Then, Coco tripped on something, landing on the ground very hard.

"Ow!" Coco yelled.

She turned to her feet and saw a white, transparent gem. The she-bandicoot grabbed the gem.

"What's this?"

A mew rang into her ears, causing her to turn to the tiger cub.

"Hi." Coco smiled at the tiger as he tucked the gem into her pocket.

The smile on Coco's face upon seeing the cub soon disappeared after shouts from the men rang into her ears.

"The tiger went this way!"

"Oh no!" Coco wimpered.

Then, she truly realized that the tiger might be a cub, but it was big enough to be ridden on by anyone, including herself. She got on the tiger's back quickly, and the tiger started to run off with great speed to escape the convey of wagons and men.

* * *

In the ruins of Atlantis, Nathan and Aku-Aku explored the ruins within a few hours and found nothing beyond the similar markings on the walls and water-filled passageways.

"I don't know if we can." Nathan announced his concerns to the magic mask.

"Don't worry about it." Aku-Aku replied, "I am very powerful, espeaically in water."

"Are you positive about that?" The human asked in doubt.

Aku-Aku looked at the boy with an expression that said, 'You cannot be seriously asking that question'.

"Sorry," apologized Nathan, "but you're made of wood."

"I am a witch doctor's spirit that lived on the Wumpa Islands for his life and afterlife. I know my way around the waters."

With a very sheepish grin, Nathan said, "I'm sorry. I guess my logic interfered my trust in you. I might not want to be involved with my family's 'business', but I'm still adepting to being around other people and trusting them."

"I know," Aku-Aku replied, "Crash has been helping you. Doctor Brio, Coco, and even Luna and Sash have been helping you to be 'different' from your family."

Nathan smiled at the mask and asked, "How do we go underwater?"

Aku-Aku did not answer, but he flew at Nathan and planted himself onto the boy's face. Nathan fell into the water, but he failed to feel the water on his skin. Nathan looked around into the water and said the fauna and flora of the waters, where the ruins rested in. Then, he looked at his body and saw the familiar, colorful aura of Aku-Aku. This tells Nathan that Aku-Aku is protecting him from the water.

"Amazing!" Nathan said as he started to swim in the water, "It's like I'm wearing a full body scuba suit!

_"You are enjoying this?" _The mask's voice echoed in Nathan's mind.

"Yeah!" Nathan replied with a child-like glee, "This is so much fun!"

Aku-Aku's fatherly laugh comforted the boy as he became more skillful in swimming. Then, Nathan saw something shining in the sand.

"What's that?"

_"I do not know, but it feels...familiar."_

"Familiar?" Nathan asked.

The now-masked boy swam to shiny object's place in the sand and grabbed the object, which Nathan discovered was a gem.

_"I do not believe my eyes!"_ Aku-Aku exclaimed in surprise, _"It's a power gem!"_

"A power gem?"

Then out of nowhere, a small, red shark chraged at the boy, who managed to dodge the attack. The shark turned around, saw the masked boy, and let out a roar, revealing that the shark was a robot.

"Uh-oh..." Nathan said before he swam to the surface of the water and escaped the false shark.

"That was close!" Nathan sighed out of relief as Aku-Aku freed himself from Nathan's face.

"I agree." The mask sighed in relief as well.

"Wait a moment." Nathan announced, showing the gem, "What's the story about this gem?"

Aku-Aku smiled at Nathan, because the boy was talking like Luna for that moment, and answered.

"That gem is a power gem, a great source of energy. This may be what my brother, Uka-Uka, is after."

"Damn!" Nathan cursed answer his breath, "I bet three out of three that my uncle's just waiting for us to gather the gems, so he can take them for us!"

"I fear you must right, but if we do not obtain the gems, Cortex's robots will."

The dark haired boy thought until he spoke.

"Good point. Then, we must get the gems."

Then, a dark grin appeared on the boy's face as he added, "It'll be a good way of teaching my uncle a good lesson of 'gimme, gimme, never gets.'

Aku-Aku felt a little uneasy upon seeing the grim grin, but he knew that Nathan was right and agreed to help by saying, "I can sense another gem nearby. We better get to the gem before those machines find them."

"Right." Nathan agreed, "Lead the way."

Then, the mask flew off to another part of the ruins with Nathan behind him.

* * *

In the Ice Age, Luna, in her werewolf form, and Sash have traveled for a few hours. On the way, the duo have fought off many saber-tooth tigers, angry mammoths, and many of Cortex's robots, which wore the attire for the time and climate. The wolves found a cave and started a fire, planning to stay in the cave for the night.

"This stinks!" Luna complained, rubbing her arms to warm herself, "Even with fur, I still freeze."

"Quit whining!" Sash responded, "It's not that bad."

"Easy for you to say!"

"No, it's very for me. I hate the cold just as much as you."

"Cold?" An Aussie-accented voice asked, "How about I warm ya up?"

Then, a large flame entered the cave, surrrounding the hybrids in fire. The roaring fire consumed the duo and lasted for a few mintues. Once the the flame died down, the only things standing was the cave and a silver-furred Luna, who held up a energy barrier.

"That warms things up a bit." Luna said as the barrier disappeared.

Sash removed herself from Luna's body, changing the silver fur to brown.

"Agreed, Luna." The silver wolf announced, "Now, who would be so 'noble' to warm us?"

"Yeah, let's asked." Luna grinned.

The wolves exited the cave and were greeted by a gasp of surprise.

"How did ya keep yourselves from becoming firewood!"

The wolves looked around and found a strange creature: a hybrid of a crocodile and a dingo wearing tan pants and carrying a propane tank with a spraying hose on his back.

"That looks like trouble." Luna said.

"No news needed here, Luna." Sash replied.

"I'm gonna make toast out of you two." The repile-mammal announced before aiming the hose at the wolves and firing at them.

The stream of flame almost hit the duo, whom managed to dodge the flames.

"This guy means business!" Luna growled out in anger.

Sash just growled at the hybrid.

"Ha," laughed the attack, "ya two are quick on your feet!"

Then, Luna disappeared.

"Where she go?" The reptile searched for the brown wolf-girl.

Then, a voice entered the attacker's dingo-ears.

"Don't think that all females are weak."

The assassin turned around and tried to spray fire onto Luna, but he missed.

"Where did she go?"

Sash sat down and watched this game that Luna was playing with the enemy.

"Enjoy, Luna." The silver wolf grinned at the sight of the frightened foe.

Luna was very fast on her feet, even faster than Sash in her spirit-like form, but only in her werewolf form. She could outrun anyone, if she wanted to, but Sash knew that Luna had to learn self-control over her powers and capabilites, which took a long time for Luna to learn.

The reptile-mammal looked for Luna, firing at where the brown she-wolf could be at, but where Luna was at, she was not there...at least not when the flame touched the ground.

"Dammit!" The attacker cursed out in fury, "Why can't ya stand still?"

"Fine." Luna said, appearing behind the reptile and punched the propane tank. The power of the punch sent the hybrid to the ground.

"What the...?" Those were the only words the attacker exclaimed before the tank blew up.

"That's gonna leave a mark!" Luna said as she watched the explosion.

The debris cleared, revealing the attacker and a familiar silver aura surrounding him.

"Sash!" The wolf-woman growled in fury, "Why did you do that?"

The silver aura left the assassin and changed into the form of th wolf. Sash replied, "You'll see."

Then, Sash went to the attacker and dug at his pockets until two transparent gems popped out.

"Whoa!" The brown wolf exclaimed, "What are those jewels?"

"I have no idea," Sash answered, "but I have a feeling about the reason why Cortex might what these."

Thinking about the statement, Luna replied, "You may have a point there." Then, she looked at the wolves' attacker for a moment and returned to Sash and said, "Let's take this guy prisoner. He may have some info about Cortex's plan."

"Good idea." The silver wolf agreed. Then, she noticed something behind Luna and said, "Luna, look!"

Luna turned around and saw the silver portal through time.

"Looks like our way back." Luna announced before turning to the assassin's direction.

"Wait a sec!" Sash spoke out, causing Luna to stop.

"What is it?" The brown werewolf asked her partner.

"You may need to change appearances."

Luna looked at her body and realized that she needed to change back to her human form for Crash and Coco.

"Good point." Luna answered.

Luna took a deep breath before she started to transform. Her body shrunk in size, her tail regressed back to a tail bone, her claws became fingernails and toenails, her ears dulled to human ears, her back paws became feet, the fangs drew back, and the fur grew small and transparent. Luna was human once again.

"Well, that was fun." Luna said as she streched her body, "It's been a while since I was in that form."

"I know." Sash said, rolling her golden eyes before changing her form and fusing into Luna.

Then, the fuse form of Sash and Luna went to the reptile-mammal hybrid, picked his lump body up and over her shoulder, and carried him into the portal.

* * *

Back in Atlantis, Nathan and Aku-Aku searched for the second power gem with no luck so far.

"It's been hours since we've arrived in this era." Nathan said out of boredom.

"I know." Aku-Aku agreed, still looking for the gem.

Then, a red shark jumped out of the water and tried to snap at the two allies.

"Whoa!" Nathan exclaimed, jumping out of the way.

The red shark, upon returning to the water, swam around in a circle.

"This shark's getting on my nevres!" Nathan growled in fury, and Aku-Aku agreed, saying, "We should 'teach him a lesson.'"

The human turned to the mask and gave a grin.

"Apparently, Luna's affecting you as well."

Aku-Aku replied with a grin as he said, "I believe you are right."

Then, the mask attached himself to Nathan's face, and they dived into the water. The shark chraged at the duo, whom were chraging at it. Nathan and Aku-Aku sliced through the robot, which split in two and exploded.

_"Nathan, look!"_ Aku-Aku's voice announced to Nathan's mind.

The boy looked and saw another power crystal gem to the bottom. He swam to the gem and grabbed it.

"This is good." Nathan said.

Then, he saw the silver orb that serves as the portal through time.

_"It is to go."_ The mask said.

Nathan swam into the portal, and the portal disappeared.

* * *

In the era of anicent China, it was sunrise. The sunlight of the morning woke up Coco and the tiger cub, who was sleeping in the bamboo forest with some help from the dew drop from the leaves.

"Hey!" A half-sleeping Coco exclaimed in a moan; with little sleep and rough sleeping conditions, the young she-bandicoot was very tired. She looked at the tiger, who gave out a yawn and shook his head to rid itself of the dew in its fur. Seeing this, Coco laughed a little and said, "Not really a morning person."

The cub looked at Coco and purred as it rubbed his head against Coco's furry arm.

"Hey! That tickles!" Coco giggled when she saw a panda eating bamboo, causing her to say, "Time to go."

Coco got up and started to walk out of the forest with the cub following right behind her, when she heard a familiar and unwanted voice.

"Coco Bandicoot: Found. Status: Alive and in possession of a power gem. Objective: Destory Coco Bandicoot and retrieve power gem."

Coco turned around and saw Cortex's robots in Chinese clothing in a failed attempt to hide from the population of the era. She could not help herself from laughing, amused the tried and failed disguises.

"Could Cortex be any dumber?" The she-bandicoot laughed out.

Then, the robot advanced at her, just to only miss her by inches before recieving a roundhouse kick to the head, which flew off of the machine's body.

"Nice try!" Coco yelled out before she jumped on the the cub's back, and the duo ran off until they reached the Great Wall itself.

"Whoa!" Coco exclaimed, causing the tiger cub to stop. Once stopped, she said, "That was close!"

Then, she saw a gem, similar to the one she found earlier.

"Now, that's weird!" Coco said as she got off the tiger and went to the gem's resting place.

She grabbed it, when she heard another robot.

"Destory Coco Bandicoot."

The young bandicoot turned around and saw five more robots charging at her and the tiger cub.

"Run!" Coco yelled out and ran away.

The cub ran after his new friend, hoping to catch up with her. It followed Coco into the sphere-like portal through time.

* * *

Hours later in the time of the dinosaurs, Crash was not very successful in his search. The only thing that he found were pteridactyls, which thought Crash was dinner, and more of the Cortex's robots disguised as cavemen. Crash turned to Baby-T, who looked very tired from the long walk.

"I know." Crash said, petting the dinosaur's head, "I'm tired."

Then, the bandicoot slumped onto a white stump, and the next thing Crash knew was that he was on his back.

"What the!" Crash shouted out in confused fury, which lasted for a few moments.

A very anrgy triceratops glared at the one, who used in stub of its missing horn as a seat: Crash. The bandicoot and the tyrannosaurus rex was in awe and fear as the giant creature bellowed out its fury before it chraged at them. The friends started running away, knowing they were too weak to fight off a furious dinosaur.

"RUN!" Crash yelled out as he ran away from the outraged dinosaur, while Baby-T did not even hear the command to retreat.

The triceratops chased after the two with a great, blind fury. It did not care what it did as long as its sight was on the bandicoot that sat on its missing horn and the tyrannosaurus rex that would grow to be its natural nemesis.

Crash wanted to escape, but the dinosaur that chased him was closing in on him and Baby-T. He needed a plan, but no ideas manifested in his mind. Only the thoughts of running away filled his mind. This caused him to not pay attenetion on what was on the 'path', and he tripped on a rock, landing on the ground.

"OW!"

Baby-T turned around upon hearing shout of pain and saw Crash in great danger. It dashed off to its friend's rescue.

"Damn!" The bandicoot exclaimed as he looked behind him to see the chraging dinosaur coming at him. Seeing that it was the end for him, Crash smiled and said under his breath, "Nathan, Luna, Coco, please be strong when I'm gone." With that, Crash closed his eyes, ready to meet his death.

The dinosaur was prepared to flatten Crash, when a flash of lime-green came in front of it and grabbed its prey. The triceratops looked to its right and saw its prey on the back of the infant tyrannosaurus rex, which was growling at it.

"Huh?" Crash asked, opening an eye. He saw the head of Baby-T and became relieved and happy.

"Baby-T! Ya came!"

The celebration was shortened by the rage-filled bellow of the triceratops, which caused Baby-T to turn around and run away in the opposite direction. Seeing the escaping duo, the ginat dinosaur gave chase again.

Crash was impressed by Baby-T's speed, but he looked behind him and saw the triceratops, which was catching up them him and his friend.

"That's not good!"

The bandicoot turned his attention to the front of Baby-T and noticed something shiny, but Baby-T gulped it down!

"What the...!"

Crash didn't have enough time to finish his sentence, because he and Baby-T went to the silver, sphere-like portal through time.


	5. Chapter 5

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Five

Crash and Baby-T fell to the ground with a thud. Crash sat up and rubbed his sore arm, which was the part of his body that suffered a possible bruise with a strong amount of weight on it.

"Ow! I perfer hard earth over metal any day!"

A moan of a growl came from the baby dinosaur, agreeing with the bandicoot.

"Yeah." Crash laughed out.

Then, three more 'thuds' were heard by the bandicoot and Baby-T. They looked at the direction of the thuds and saw Nathan, Aku-Aku, Coco, a tiger cub, Luna with Sash fused with her, and a strange creature that looked like a hybrid of a dingo and a crocodile.

"Guys!" Crash smiled as he got to his feet and ran to his friends, "Man, am I glad to see ya guys!"

"Sure you are." Luna answered jokingly.

Crash smiled at the wolf-girl, enjoying hearing the jokes, when he heard Nathan's laugh, which was rare in the missions.

"Well, that's true."

Aku-Aku nodded in agreement as he said, "Typical Crash."

"Yeah." Coco spoke out while stroking the tiger's fur.

The friends laughed out when a groan announced the existence of its owner. The group looked and saw the hybrid rise up from the metal floor.

"Oy, what happened, Doc?"

Luna grinned evilly as she turned to the hybrid experiment.

"Doctor Cortex isn't here." The now-silver haired female announced.

The creature looked at Luna with an expression of pure, innocent confusion as he gave his response.

"Cortex? I was talking about Brio."

Now, it was Luna's turn to be confused. Luckly, Nathan solved the mystery of the hybrid.

"You must be the assisant made by the accident."

"Assisant?" Luna asked, and Crash added, "Accident?"

Coco asked the human male, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, well..." Nathan said, trying to collect his thoughts.

"Spit it out!" Luna yelled at Nathan.

"All right!" Nathan yelled back, annoyed at the wolf girl.

The reptile-mammal leaned towards Crash and whispered to him, "Are they always like this?"

"Only if they're half furious." The male bandicoot replied, causing the hybrid to be in a great shock.

"Half furious? If they're half furious now, I'd hate to find out what they're like when they fully mad."

"No kidding!" Coco laughed.

"Excuse us!" Luna's voice ripped through the ears of evoled animals, whom turned their attention to Nathan and Luna.

Nathan and Luna were not amused at the friends talking about them while they were fighting or agruing.

"That's just rude." Nathan's voice covered in annoyance.

"Now, calm down." Crash said, backing away from the wolf girl and the human male.

"Yeah, it's just a joke." Coco said, following her older brother's example.

Luna was advancing towards the bandicoots with an increasing speed, when Nathan grabbed her arm. The grab stopped the wolf girl in her tracks.

"Now's not the time to attack." Nathan said to Luna, who whipped her head to him. The boy smiled and added, "Save some of the energy for the enemies."

Luna was surprised for a moment before she realized that something was going on and smiled.

"All right, Nathan; I won't miss with the pals, as long as they is someone to beat up later."

"I promise." Nathan announced, seeing the relief on the Crash's, Coco's and the reptile-mammal's faces. Then, he turned to Aku-Aku and said, "Can you tell them about the power gems?"

"Of course." The mask announced before he turned to the group, who was confused about the power gems that Nathan metioned.

"I believe that you might have found clear gems in the time eras you 'visited,' didn't you?"

"That's right." Coco comfirmed, "I found two."

"Same here." Crash announced, pulling out his gems.

"This guy here had them." Luna said, pointing a thumb at the hybrid, who became very rageful to the wolf girl.

"'EY! I'M NOT 'THIS GUY'; I HAVE AN NAME, AND IT'S DINGODILE! GOT IT?"

"All right already." Luna rubbed her ears from the pain caused by the hybrid's howling roar, "You didn't have to yell at me, though."

"Don't be so sure of yourself, Luna." Nathan snickered at the wolf girl, who showed no amusement upon hearing the comment.

"Watch it, white sheep."

"That's enough!" Aku-Aku scolded at Nathan and Luna, whom retreated from the mask and each other.

The mask gave out a heavy sigh and continued to speak about the power gems.

"These gems are very powerful."

"Like the power crystals?" Coco interrupted the mask, who was annoyed by the disruption, but was understanding about the younger bandicoot's question.

"The gems are not as powerful as the crystals..."

"But if they're powerful enough to catch Cortex's attention, they're very powerful." Luna interjected her thoughts into the form of a voice.

Hearing the statement, the others agreed, even Aku-Aku acknowledged the statement as the truth as he hardly minded being interrupted again.

"Sooooooo," Crash asked the colorful mask, "how many gems do we need get?"

"Well," the mask thought for a moment, "we have eight now, so that means we need to get seventeen more."

"Seventeen!" The allies and friends exclaimed in shock.

"That makes twenty-five gems in total!" Coco added to the all-ready surprising statement.

"That's as many as the crystals!" Crash announced, which the others looked at him strangely. Noticing this, the male bandicoot asked, "What?"

"Our primary concern for the current situation is finding the remaining power gems." Aku-Aku announced, knowing that Cortex and Uka-Uka might be obtaining the gems as they spoke.

The others looked at him and realized that the mask was right.

"But we need to get some help going through time." Nathan stated, causing the others to agree with him.

Aku-Aku had his answered and voiced it.

"Well, the power gems can be of some help."

Crash, Coco, Nathan, and Luna looked at the gems that they had, and then looked at each other. Nodding their heads in agreement, the four held out the gems and allowed them to float out of their hands. Aku-Aku, using his power to summon the gems to help him, was covered in a bright, white light. The light grew and covered the room, blinding the others. Once the light died down, they uncovered their eyes and saw three orb-like portals through time.

"Now, that's cool." Coco smiled, upon seeing the aftermath of the combined powers of the ancient mask and the power gems.

"You can say that again." Crash agreed.

"Hey, check it out." Luna announced, noticing something about the spheres.

The others heard this and went to the closest sphere and saw an image in the sphere.

"Now, that's interesting." Nathan mused at the sight of the setting in the sphere. Then, he turned to Aku-Aku and asked, "Do you know about this?"

"Of course," the mask replied, "I used the power of the gems to allow what time era it lead to to be shown."

"That's a good idea." Luna and Dingodile agreed.

"So, this one leads to the time of the Roman Empire." Coco assumed to the others.

"How can you tell?" Crash asked his only sister.

With a heavy and annoyed sigh, Coco explained.

"Well, while you were looking at the insides of your eyelids, I was looking at websites that had historical sites, and one of the sites was the Colosseum, in Rome, Italy."

"Yep," Luna spoke up, "it's the Colosseum."

"Something's telling me that I better pay more attention to Coco's babbling more often." Crash spoke out loud, causing another round of strange looks towards him with the exception of Coco, who was very furious at him. Seeing this, Crash announced, "Uh, oh."

"Come here." Coco said, motioning her finger to the ground in front of her.

"No way." Crash announced running to a sphere and jumping into the portal to escape his sister and her version of the "Fists of Fury," failing to see that he was going to a different time.

Coco persured until Crash entered the portal, and it disappeared.

"He got away!" Coco yelled in fury.

"Chill out, Coco." Nathan said to the young bandicoot. The statement caused Luna to speak.

"Don't say, 'Chill out.'"

"Sorry." Nathan said to the wolf girl before turning back to Coco and saying, "Crash has to get home at some time."

Taking a moment to think, Coco spoke out her thought.

"Good point, Nathan. I can wait."

Luna snickered at the thought of Coco's revenge against Crash and his overtalkative mouth. Then, she turned to one of the spheres and saw a castle in the middle ages.

"The Dark Ages, huh?"

"Huh?" Nathan and Coco turned to Luna, only to see her jump into the sphere.

"See ya on the flip side." The wolf girl yelled out as she disappeared into the silver orb, which disappered.

"Luna..." Nathan sighed out of slight annoyance.

Nathan had spent a year with Luna and Sash, and he still cannot predict what the duo would do, whether or not that Nathan knows it.

"See ya later, Nathan!"

"Coco?" Nathan turned around and saw Coco and the tiger cub jump into the final sphere, which also vanished from sight. Seeing that he was left behind, Nathan felt a little unwanted.

"Well, Aku-Aku, Dingodile," The human said, "I guess it's just us and the T-Rex."

"Uh...Nathan." The reptile-mammal said, "The mask's not here."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed as he looked for any sign of the powerful mask. When he saw that Dingodile was accurate in his information, Nathan sighed out a complaint.

"Why does stuff like this happen to me?"

Dingodile and Baby-T looked at each other in confusion as Nathan sat down on the ground and started to wait for his friends to return.


	6. Chapter 6

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Six

Crash fell out of the time portal and landed of something slightly soft and very hot!

"Ow!" The bandicoot exclaimed in pain from the extreme heat from the ground.

Crash tried to escape by sitting on his backside, but the heat was painful through the denim shorts, causing Crash to stand up on his feet. The heat touched his feet, but the pain was not there. Crash mentally thanked the inventor of rubber-soles for shoes. Then, he recalled that rubber melts, if enough heat touchs them, which gave Crash an idea.

"I better stand walking."

As soon as the bandicoot started walking, Crash noticed that he was in a desert, but he also saw a city. Knowing that the city meant water and people, Crash also remembered that not many people are accustomed of seeing a human-sized, anthropomrphic bandicoot at any time period.

"Better think of a way to enter the city unnoticed." Crash thought to himself.

A grunting sound grabbed Crash's attention, causing him to turn and see a convoy of camels. Seeing the beasts of burden and the items they were carrying Crash got an idea. He carefully and quietly went to the camels and walked near one of the beasts. Trying to keep quiet, Crash breathed through his nose, getting a strong whiff from the camel. The smell nearly caused Crash to exclaim, but Crash was quick to stop himself long enough to hop onto the camel, which gave him a chance of entering the basket. Stopping himself from exclaiming in surprise as he landed on the contents of the basket: a power gem. Quickly, Crash placed the lid over his head before any of the owners of the camels saw him.

"Whew! That was close!" Crash announced in a whisper as he claimed his prize and put it in his pocket, "Now, I need the other, and I'm outta this time zone."

Crash prepared for the ride to the city and very likely the next power gem.

* * *

Coco landed on her feet with the tiger cub by her side, as they found themselves in Rome, the heart of center of the Roman Empire.

"Wow! Talk about a up-close look at history!" Coco announced to the tiger cub, who purred at its friend.

The two looked around and saw that there were far too many humans to wake around the stone streets of the captial.

"Something tells me that we better had another way around the city in the daylight." Coco said to her friend, whose felt Coco's feelings about the situation.

Desperate to evade any unwanted attention from the humans of the time era, Coco saw a Roman's version of a manhole cover. She went to the cover and lifed it.

"Come on!" Coco urged to the cub in a whispered tone of voice.

The cub responsed and jumped into the hole. Coco soon followed behind and closed the manhole, not allowing anyone to follow them. Lacking any knowing of the network of the sewer system, Coco soon regreted taking this route, but she also knew that it was the best way to avoid the unknowing humans and their version of a justice system.

"I hope we find the gems soon." Coco spoke to her friend, who gave a meek mew.

Then, the duo heard the sound of footsteps coming their way. Coco took a few steps back, and the cub followed his friend's action. A few moments later, a very skinny man in a torn toga ran passed the duo, dropping a power gem.

"Whoa!" Coco quietly exclaimed as the gem's former owner made his way through the sewer system of the city of Rome.

As soon as the man was out of sight and no longer heard, Coco and the tiger cub went to the power gem and picked it up. Seeing in the dark was one of the abilities that the evolved animals still maintained despite being coverted into human-like creatures by Neo Cortex, and Coco was very grateful for that ability.

"Something tells me about that guy: he looked like he was more concerned with his life than the treasure." The she-bandicoot announced as she eyed the power gem.

Then, more hastened footsteps reached the little bandicoot's ears. Easily as the first time, Coco and the cub hid themselves again as Roman soldiers ran passed the duo. Coco guessed that the soldiers were chasing after the man, but the reason was only half the mystery to her as she hid the gem into her pocket.

Once the soldiers were gone by sight and sound, Coco and the cub ran in the opposite direction, hoping to find the sister of their power gem.

* * *

Luna and Sash landed safely on the ground as they found themselves in a forest.

"Figures that we land in a forest like this." Luna announced as she looked around for any human life.

Then, Sash seprated herself from Luna, changing the human-like partner into full human appearence.

"Luna, now's not a good time to be together in our combined form." Sash warned, looking at Luna's sulking body.

"Thanks, pal." Luna said, annoyed at the wolf's statement, "The last thing I need is a lecture from you."

"It would do you some good to listen to me every now and again." Sash stated, not realizing the Luna started off without her. Once knowing of this fact, Sash chased after Luna.

"Luna! Get back here! Don't ignore me like that! Hey!"

Then, a scream rang out, stopping Luna's retreat and Sash's pursuit.

"I know we're in for some trouble, if we get involved." Sash announced, suggesting against going to the rescue.

"Just the same to you," Luna said, looking at the silver wolf with a toothy grin, "I'll just go the the rescue."

Keeping true to her words, Luna ran off to the source of the scream. Trying to keep up with Luna, Sash followed, saying, "I liked the Ice Age better."

The partners went off and found a young girl with gold-blond hair running from Neo Cortex's robots, which were dressed in medival garb. Luna ran to the girl and grabbed her to take the child to safety, while Sash flew at some of the robots and took the energy, which she used against the reminding machines. Once seeing that it was safe, Luna appeared from the bushs, which she hid herself and the child.

"Amazing!" The girl expressed her awe of the partners, "You're werewolves."

Hearing this, Luna laughed out before she said, "As much as you're a mermaid."

The child gasped as fear flowing into her ocean-green eyes, which told Luna and Sash that humans of the Dark Ages are extremely prejudice against the child's kind; something that the werewolves can sympaized with other creatures whom were being judged by humans.

"Mermaid, you have nothing to fear." Sash spoke to the child, who was shocked at Luna's ability to speak, "We would say anything if you don't."

The child looked at Luna, who winked and smiled at her. The girl smiled back, relieved that the werewolves that rescued her were kind beings.

"None of the werewolves I've met were kind to me." The girl admitted to the she-wolves, whom each made a guess in a form of a question.

"Were they males?" Luna asked, while Sash added, "Or where they defensive about territory?"

"Probably," The merchild replied, "I was very young at the time."

"Quite the troublemakers." Sash announced upon hearing the answer.

Luna noticed that Sash was eyeing at her, turned to the wolf and said, "Hey, I'm a bit of a troublemaker, but I'm not that bad!" Then, Luna regained her composure and turned to the little girl and asked a question.

"Why those...humans chasing you?"

Hesiantly, the child answered, saying, "Well, I was in the woods, paying by myself, when those...strange men appeared out of a silver orb that appeared and disappeared. The men saw me and my jewel that I found in that area."

"A jewel?" Sash asked, and Luna asked the child, "Do you still have the jewel?"

"Yes?" The girl answered, now uneasy about the werewolves and their questions.

"Well..." Luna said, looking at Sash, who said in a hushed tone, "Right."

"Is the jewel cursed?" The girl asked the partners.

"Yeah." The more human-appearing human answered, "So the sooner we get the jewel from the victim, the sooner those men will stop chasing you."

"Are you sure?" The girl asked, not trusting the duo.

"Unless, you want those men to continue to pursue you, I suggest you would, at least show us the jewel."

The mermaid looked at Luna and Sash, and then she pulled out the jewel, which was really a power gem.

"This is the jewel that the men were after." The silver wolf said, "Very bad luck that yu found that jewel."

Luna saw what Sash was up to and added, "Oh, very bad luck."

"What I'm going to do!" The girl entered a state of worried.

"Well, we're not EXACTLY the best people to expect to be protectors..." Luna annoucned, hoping to clam the child down a little.

"Yes, we'll help, but only you want us to."

"Okay." The golden haired girl said, smiling at the werewolves, "First off, what are your names."

"You go first." Luna said, hoping not to be tricked.

"Okay," the merchild agreement, "I'm Diane."

"I'm called Luna." The human-like werewolf announced, which was followed by the wolf saying, "I am known as Sash."

"Will you two help me home?" Diane asked her guards.

"Of course." The brown haired werewolf announced.

"Then, let's go!" Sash suggested, just to realized the Luna and Diane started off without her.

"HEY! DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!"

* * *

Back at the Time Twister, Nathan was looking out at hyperspace, while Dingodile and Baby-T was sleeping. Aku-Aku was with Nathan as his thoughts were on the departed adventurers.

"I can't wait any longer!" Nathan announced, releasing his hidden fury from being left behind and waking Dingodile and Baby-T.

"Nathan," the mask tried to calm the youth, "I could only summon three portals with the power of the eight power gems that we had at the time."

Turning to the mask, Nathan demanded, "Is there another way to open a portal?"

"The only person I can guess with that power without need for the power gems is the master of the Time Twister Machine, and we have no idea who that is."

Then, a voice rang out to the group.

"Well, well, if it isn't Neo Cortex's one and only nephew."

Taking notice, which would be difficult for anyone to do, Nathan, Aku-Aku, Dingodile, and Baby-T looked around for source of the voice, but they failed.

"Show youself!" The boy demeanded to the voice.

"I will," The vooice replied in a mocking manner, "However, only you and the mask will meet me."

"What?" The human and the mask exclaimed out.

Then, a silver circle appeared on the floor and underneath Nathan and starting to pull him into its form. Aku-Aku tried to use his aura to grab Nathan, but the circle released tenacles, which grabbed the mask.

"Let go!" Nathan yelled out, and Aku-Aku added, "Release us at once!"

"Sorry," the voice rang out, "but I'm under strict orders."

"Getting swolled by a portal, not what I wanted to do when I woke up this morning!" Nathan announced before being engulfed by the portal with Aku-Aku.

Then, the circle disappeared as the frightened reptiles watched on, not knowing what to do next.

* * *

Nathan and Aku-Aku landed on a platform from the silver circle portal, which disappered after dropping them.

"Ow!" Nathan announced his pain as he rubbed his sore backside, "That landing was rough!"

"I cannot truly empathize with you." The colorful mask announced, hovering over the boy.

Glaring at Aku-Aku, Nathan said, "Thanks a lot!"

Then, a voice echoed throughout the room where the duo were.

"Nathan Charles, I'm glad to see you."

Nathan and Aku-Aku turned and saw that they were in a room with clocks, causing Nathan to wonder who was the decorator of the room. He also sees that they were on a platform, and there was another platform on the other side of the room. On that platform, there was a man dressed in bronzen armor, which looked clockwork parts.

"Who are you?" Nathan demanded the man, who turned to the clock behind him and turned the clock's hands before the clock disappeared.

The clockwork covered man turned around and replied to the boy, saying, "I am Doctor Nefarious Tropy, master of time and the creator of the very machine you and your allies have been using to go through the eras."

"And working for Uka-Uka." Aku-Aku guessed correctly.

"Correct." Tropy confirmed, summoning a staff that was a form of a tuning fork.

Seeing the staff, the mortal and the mask felt a sense of dread, not knowing why they felt uneasy.

"Now," the blue skinned man said, "give me the power gems and you will be spared."

"If I refuse?" Nathan asked, eyeing the man.

"What an interesting question," Tropy announced, "I'll be more than happy to answer." Then, he waved his staff and aimed at the boy and the mask, adding the statement, "Beware, boy, attacking you makes no difference to me. Destroying you would only make me feel better due to the decline of the members of your group."

Sighing loudly, Nathan 'asked,' "Why am I not surprised?"

Then, a fireball appeared from Tropy's staff and flew at Nathan and Aku-Aku, who dodged the projectile. The ball of flame hit the floor, leaving a large scorch mark on the platform.

"That was close!" Aku-Aku gasped upon the mark.

"Too close!" Nathan responed to the mask as he pulled out his invention and glared at the enemy.

"If you think that was bad," Tropy grinned grimmly at the duo, "then, you've seen nothing yet."

Then, he raised his staff, and lights of orange-yellow glowed at the tips of the staff. Then, the lights flew at the wall, creating a tangible wave. Nanthan, not wanting to be zapped, ducked under the wave, while Aku-Aku floated over the wave. The duo escaped harm.

Another wave appeared, and Nathan and Aku-Aku evaded the wave with ease.

"Damn!" The ex-Cortex hissed out of his lips, "I need to find a weakness!"

"I know." The mask heared the young man, "We must wait!"

Nathan agreed as he and his ally dodged and evaded each fireball and wave, until he saw the master of time went to his knees out exhaustion.

"Best thing I've seen since this battle began." Nathan Charles grinned as he actived his weapon.

With a swing of his arm, the whip-like energy flew to a high part of the room and grabbed a metal hook, allowing Nathan to swing to the platform, where Tropy was on. Once there, Nathan was about to punch Tropy in the exposed face, when he saw something on the floor next to the blue skinned doctor: a power gem. Knowing the dangers of the gems, Nathan reached for the gems. The creator of the Time Twister saw this action, and tried to grabbed the gems, hitting Nathan on the chest. The force of the hit nearly sent the boy off the platform, but Aku-Aku intervened, rescuing Nathan.

"Danks for da rescue!" A shakened Nathan said as the fear was evident in the boy's voice and speech; Nathan spoke sentences like that were he experiences a near-death situation.

"You're welcome." Aku-Aku replied before he noticed the next bombardment of attacks of fireballs and waves and yelled, "Look out!"

Evading each fireball and wave, Nathan saw that Tropy had a gem with him. The human looked at his hand and saw that he also had a power gem in his hand.

Fury glowed red on Nefarious Tropy's blue face as he yelled, "You and your friends are too stupid to comprehend the forces of the power gems and how they can be used."

"Good point," agreed Nathan with a thoughtful grin on his face, "but I now this: if it gains the attention of people, like Neo Cortex and Uka-Uka, then it can't be good for everyone else in the world."

Then, Nathan used his weapon to make his way to Tropy and attacked the clockwork-armored man. With a swing of his fist, Nathan tried to hit the blue-skinned master of time, who disappeared and reappeared on the next platform.

"How will you stop me, when you have a limited number of power gems?" Tropy tauntingly asked the boy, who replied with a grin.

"Funny," Aku-Aku said to Tropy, copying Nathan's grin, "I was about to ask you the same thing."

Just as the mask spoke, Nathan revealed the second power gem that he had taken from Tropy just before the creator of the Time Twister went to the platform for the second time. Seeing that Nathan and Aku-Aku had taken the gems from his person and possession, Tropy sent a bombardment of large fireballs and powerful waves. until he went to his knees in exhaustion again.

"I've got to be quick this time." Nathan said to himself as he used the energy whip to take him to Tropy.

Once there, Nathan gave Tropy a kick to the stomach and a punch to the face, sending the master of the Time Twister to the ground. Keeping his bady off the floor in his defeat, Tropy gave a cyrptic message.

"My time is up, but your's will be up as well."

Then, Doctor Nefarious Tropy disappeared and in his place was a sphere-shaped portal.

"Let's go!" Nathat said, "I don't want to see if there's any more 'masters of time' floating around here."

"I agree." Aku-Aku nodded, "Let us go back to Dingodile and Baby-T; they might be worried about us."

Then, the two allies jumped into the portal to return to the others, hoping that the others were not upset or extremely concerned about them.

* * *

Luna, Sash and Diane had traveled a long way to the sea. The werewolves had defended the mermaid from Cortex's robots. Finally, the three females reached the body of sea water Diane, as well as the rest of her kind, called home.

"Well, we're here." Luna smiled, turning to the merchild, "Ready to go home?"

Diane nodded her head to the human-like werewolf and said, "Yes, Mother and Father must be worried about me."

"Not a common thing in this time," Sash coldly replied. Then, she smiled, saying, "but I'm glad we returned you to your home before those 'men' grabbed you."

"Oh!" Luna cocked an eyebrow and grinned like a fox, "Perhaps, you're not so cold after all."

"Quite the observing one." Sash grinned back, "Never question my heart and mind about matters of helping others."

The child giggled as she pulled out her gem to the werewolves.

"Here." Diane said, holding the gem, "You're kept your promise, so I'll keep mine."

"All right!" The brown haired girl smiled as she received the power gem.

"Thank you, Diane." The silver wolf said, bowing to the child.

The merchild smiled and said, "Thank you for helping me get home, and good-bye."

Diane ran into the seaform and disappeared. Luna and Sash watched on untile they saw a giant tail fin of a fish, telling the partners that Diane is back with her family and kind.

Sash smiled as she said, "It's a good thing to help others."

"Right." Luna agreed, "So, we better get started on finding that second gem."

"Yeah." The wolf-like being said.

Turning to the opposite direction, the werewolves started to walk off the shore, when a noise from the sea. Unknowing and curious, Luna and Sash turned around to see a giant wave heading towards them!

"TIDAL WAVE!" Luna yelled out, trying to escape the wave with Sash.

Werewolves are known for their speed, but merfolk were famed by their abilites to move water and control the elements of the sea and the speed of the waves. Luna did not need X-ray vision or foresight to see that the duo were not going to escape the wave, but that did not deter them from trying. Then, the wave fell onto the werewolves, engulfing them and covering their bodies with salt water. The sea water returned to the ocean, lefting behind the werewolves and a certain item of desire.

Luna coughed up the sea water from her mouth and lungs. Sash, however, spat the water out before she yelled out her fury towards the merfolk upon seeing the item, which was a power gem.

"WHY THOSE FISH-HUMANS! THOSE...THOSE..."

"Sash!" Luna barked out, grabbing the wolf's attention, "Before you condem or expell your fury towards the merfolk, look want I have here."

In the human-like werewolf's hand, there was a power gem. Confused, the silver wolf looked at the power in Luna's hand, turned to the power gem in the sand, and back to Luna's gem.

"Wait a mintue!" Sash said, trying to sort out her thoughts, "You have the gem that Diane gave you, so that means that...Oh, dear!"

The duo heard laughter from the sea, grabbing the werewolves' attention. On the rocks were several mermaids, mermen, and merchildren; one of them was Diane with a emerald-green fish tail.

Laughing, Luna thanked the merfolk for adding the extra gem. Sash show a sheepish smile and said, "Sorry about that."

Then, a silver portal appeared, telling the partners that their mission is completed. Luna and Sash jumped into the orb, which disappeared into hyperspace.

* * *

Back at the Roman Empire, Coco and the tiger cub reached the end of the tunnel and saw that they were at the palace. With some tricky manuvers and evading the sight of the humans, they reached the throne room. Obseveing the marble throne room, Coco saw the second power gem, which sat next to the Emperor of the Roman Empire. Coco knew that trying to grabbed the gem was next to impossible.

"There's a tiger in the palace!" A guard yelled out, grabbing the she-bandicoot's attention.

Coco saw the cub being chased by the guards. The cub dodged the grabbed and evaded the weapons, and even went at the Emperor, scaring him very badly.

"GET THAT BEAST!" The Emperor shrieked out from the fright.

Hearing the high-pitched scream caused Coco to want to laugh, but she made sure that she was quiet by covering her mouth. Many guards snickered quietly as they continued to chase the tiger cub, now accompanied by the Emperor himself.

"GET IT! GET IT!" Yelled the furious ruler as he chased the cub.

As the Romans chased the tiger cub, Coco went to the throne and nabbed the power gem, which was followed by the familiar shape of the orb-like portal. The youngest of the evolved bandicoots was pressured about going to through the portal with or without her friend.

Then, a huge crash roared out to the throne room and to Coco's sensitive ears, causing her to yell out, "I'm coming!"

As Coco turned to the direction that the cub and the Romans went, she collided with a slighty smaller than she was. She looked at what she bumped into and saw a pair of amber-yellow eyes.

"You!" Coco gasped out as the tiger cub licked the bandicoot's face. Smiling, she hugged the cub with tears streaming down her face, "I thought I lost you!"

Then, shouts were heard from the direction the Romans were at, telling Coco and the tiger that it was time to leave. The duo went to the sphere portal to the Tim Twister, escaping the Roman Emperor and his guards.

* * *

Crash was running for his life, because he was discovered by the camel's owner, causing him to leap out of the basket and ran away. The owner of the camel and many others yelled out for the guards to extermiate the 'monster' and gave chase.

"How did I get myself into this mess?" Crash asked himself when he managed to evade and hide from the guards and the angry camel owner.

Looking around to find something to help him, he tripped on a carpet and fell on his backside. Turning his attention to the carpet, he was furious at first, but then he remembered about the time era's stories about flying carpets, which gave him an idea. Pulling out the power gem, Crash touched placed the gem on the rug, but nothing happened.

"What am I suppose to do? Sit on it?" Crash asked himself. Then, the questions gave Crash an idea.

The bandicoot sat on the carpet and said, "FLY!"

The gem glowed, followed by the carpet started to lift him. The carpet hovered for a moment before Crash decided to take full control.

Grabbing the two forward corners, Crash said, "Time for the test drive."

The carpet flew as the bandicoot pulled the corners, telling which direction he wanted to go. Then, he heard an awful scream from below.

"What the?" Crash asked himself as he stopped the carpet and looked down.

The bandicoot saw the people on the streets and how they exclaimed upon seeing him. Many ran into their homes or hiding places. Some fainted at the sight of Crash, and others went to their knees and started to pray.

"Whoa!" Crash looked in awe, "I sure didn't know that I'd make this big of an impact on people.

Then, a pericing scream ripped through the air, reaching everyone's ears, including the flying bandicoot's more sensitive ears. Crash, rubbing a ear with one hand and still controlling the rug with the other hand, looked and saw a veiled person running from another group of Cortex's badly disguised robots.

"The guy's gotta have a power gem, if Cortex's gadget goons are after him!" Crash assumed, knowing the possiblity was strong.

Pulling on the capret's corners, Crash flew towards the concealed person, who had tripped and fell to the ground. The robots tried to grabbed the fallen human, but Crash and his carpet were quick to come to the rescue and knocked the robots down. To add, Crash also crashed into the ground.

"Whoa!" A recovered, yet dazed, Crash exclaimed, "That's wasn't one of my smarter moves."

The bandicoot looked at the well-covered person and the reason of the robots chasing the person: the power gem.

"Not a surprise." The bandicoot groaned as he grabbed the person's arm and the gem and ran off with them, saying, "Come on!"

The person was shocked, but choosing between the strange looking men that tried to kill her and the even stranger creature that just rescued her: the creature got the concealed person's favor. The two ran as fast as they could, hoping to evade the robots, but soon they were surrounded by Cortex's machines.

"This looks bad." The bandicoot announced meekly as the robots closed in. Getting an idea, he told the concealed person to go down.

The shrouded person ducked, and Crash saw this, granting permission for the bandicoot to attack. The robots jumped at the duo, not knowing about the plan in the bandicoot's mind until it was too late, when Crash spun around. The orange tornado deflected the robots, turning to scrap metal. Once the metal carnage has ended, only Crash and the cloaked person were still moving.

"It's alright to get up." The bandicoot announced, helping the person to stand.

"Thank you for saving my life." A young woman's voice come on of the scarf.

Confused, the bandicoot asked, "You're a girl?"

"Yes," the girl replied, "and I can guess that you are not from around here."

"Is it that easy to see?" Crash said, blushing sheepishly. Then, his attention went to the power gem that he had, saying, "Well, those guys will leave you alone from now on."

Seeing the gem, the covered girl was sad and upset by the sound of her voice as she said, "But I need this for my family."

The bandicoot could truly understand the girl's problem, which was halfway unknown to him. thinking a bit, he got an idea, when he saw a certain item.

"I got an idea." Crash announced, going to the carpet.

"How can a mere rug help my family?" The girl asked, confused about the orange creature's idea.

"Trust me on this." The bandicoot smiled at the girl as he used the gems to bring the carpet to life.

The carpet whirled around in the air with its own personality. The girl gasped in awe and surprise.

"How did this happen?"

"That's my little secret," Crash smiled, "but this will help your family for sure."

"If it does, then I'm in your debt."

The bandicoot blushed a little before he said, "Yeah, now's the time to part."

Then, the familiar shape of the portal through time appeared, telling Crash time to go. Crash ran to the portal and jumped into it. Before he returned to the Time Twister, he heard the girl yell out, "Thank you for all of your help! I'll never forget this!"


	7. Chapter 7

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Seven

Dingodile and Baby-T were waiting for their friends, when four sphere-like portals of time appeared, allowing Crash, Coco, the tiger cub, Luna, Sash, Nathan, and Aku-Aku to return to the Time Twister.

"Whoa!" The hybrid exclaimed as Baby-T hid behind him.

"What's wrong, Baby-T?" Crash's voice called out to the infant reptile, who ran to the bandicoot and jumped on him and licked his face.

"Do be careful, or Baby-T'll lick up your face!" Luna shouted, as Sash wimpered in annoyance of the wolf girl.

"Luna's here." Coco giggled as the tiger cub tilted its head in confusion.

"Better than the alternative." Nathan announced, as Aku-Aku agreed by saying, "Very, very true. She's a powerful asset to us."

Dingodile laughed and grabbed his friends, saying, "It's great to see you guys again!"

"It's good to see you, too." Coco struggled to respond verbally to her embracing ally, but Dingodile was hugging her, Crash, Luna, and Nathan a little harder than he thought he was.

Desperate, Luna managed to free herself by wiggling her way out. Crash felt this and dropped the bandicoots and Nathan, whom fell onto a crawling Luna.

"Ow..." The wolf girl moaned in pain.

The siblings and the boy got up from Luna, who managed to recover from being squeezed and flattened.

"Are you alright?" The younger bandicoot asked Luna, who replied with a smile on her face.

"Everytime something like that happened, and if I was being paid for each time, I'd be very rich!" The brown haired girl smiled as she 'fixed' her hair by shaking her head, which send drops of sea water onto her friends.

"Flying wet fur is something that I don't wanna get hit by." Nathan joked as he used his arms to block the drops of sea water.

Grinning from ear to ear, Luna replied to the boy's joke, "Good one."

Happy to hear laughter and not fury, the anicent mask smiled, thinking of the good time he had as a human before his brother...

"Wait!" Aku-Aku yelled out to the group of friends.

"What?" Nathan and Crash asked in unison.

"I just remembered that Cortex and Uka-Uka were still somewhere in this machine!" The mask replied in pure shock.

"Just the thing to ruin a reunion." Luna jeered out at the metion of the villians.

"No kidding." Coco agreed, folding her arms in annoyance.

"Kidding or not, we need to keep going through time unitl we have the power gems." Nathan announced to the group.

Looking at the group, Aku-Aku asked for the gems, which the young enemies of Cortex and Uka-Uka complied with full agreement.

"Here's the two I got for helping a kid." Luna said with a goofy grin on her face, while Sash shook her head at the girl's sillines.

Crash pulled out his gems and said, "Here's the two I got."

Managing to free the gems from her pockets, Coco said, "I went through a lot to get these."

Nathan exposed the gems that he win from Nefarious Tropy and said, "Oh! Almost forgot about these."

"Where'd you get those!" Dingodile asked in a state of shock.

Posing a smug grin, the human boy answered, saying, "From a guy who called himself Doctor Nefarious Tropy. Quite a fighter, that guy is."

With a questionable look on her face, Luna asked, "Really? Don't sound so modest, Nathan. You're really a tough guy, despite that you stink at bragging."

Showing his displeasure at the wolfgirl, Nathan said, "That's rude."

"Usually, one should consider admitting their weaknesses." Luna said with a hint of wisdom to her voice, "Just make sure it's not in front of an enemy."

"Very cute." Nathan replied to the 'voice of wisdom,' "Witty to the end, huh?"

"Of course." Luna smiled wily at the boy, who did not need X-ray vision to see what the wolfgirl thought.

Aku-Aku 'coughed,' telling the group that it was tell to work together for the greater good.

"Sorry about that." Luna and Nathan said in unison, unexpecting of the response of each other.

"Ya two seem to be on the same page, huh?" Dingodile eyed the two allies as possible lovers.

"Don't be silly, Dingodile." Luna announced as Nathan agreed, "Yeah, that's none of your business."

"These guys are so goofy when they're trying to hide their feelings." Coco said as Crash, Sash, the tiger cub, and Baby-T nodded in agreement.

Zipping passed the blushing forms of Luna and Nathan, Aku-Aku took the eight gems, adding those to the gems that he had, and summoning four more portals through time.

"Check this one out!" Coco yelled to her friends.

The others looked and saw barren surface with domes of homes on it. Nathan and Luna were the first to recongized the where the domes were located.

"Hey, that's on the moon!" Luna shouted with Nathan; both were shocked about the possible habitation on the lunar surface.

"Ah don't believe it!" The hybrid exclaimed loudly, "On the moon!"

"Better not count the chickens before they hatch." Luna said, "Could be possible that life is there, but we're not so sure."

Coco thought it was strange that Luna had a knowlegde of wise proverbs, yet she rarely uses them, unless the situation calls for it.

Crash shared his sister's thoughts, but he also had a feeling that Luna and Nathan has a liking to each other.

"Don't know which one of us is going there?" Luna said, not knowing that Coco was about to jump into the portal that showed the dome-covered moon surface.

"Hold it!"

Everyone turned and saw a flailing Coco and Crash, who held his younger sister by the collar of her shirt.

Fighting to free herself, Coco yelled out at her brother, "Let me go!"

Grabbing her mouth, Luna tried to stop herself from laughing, but it was in vain. Following her brust of Luna's laughter, the others laughed loudly.

"CRASH!" Coco yelled at her brother, "I wanna go!"

"Not until we find out the other time eras." Crash announced to his sister.

With a loud sigh, Coco said, "Alright."

Just hearing this was enough for Crash, and he returned Coco back to the floor. Coco just looked at the portal before going to the next portal.

"Look at this!" Crash said in awe, "Kind looks like a long black stone with yellow lines on it. Looks weird, right?"

Nathan saw the portal and said to Crash, "That's a road."

"A road?" The bandicoots and Dingodile asked the boy, who remember that they were knew little about the world outside of the Wumpa Islands.

"Maybe you should explain what a road is." Luna whispered to the male human, who replied sarcastically, "No! Really?"

"Hey, I was trying help."

"Oh, boy!" Laughed Coco, knowing that Nathan and Luna are about to start arguing with each other, and displaying their disagreements.

"Possible that they'll kiss by the end of the fight?" Crash spoke, causing Luna and Nathan to blush brightly. Quite embaressing to the wolf girl and the self-disowned Cortex!

"That's quite a statement!" Nathat said with discomfort in his voice, while a rageful Luna growled at the outspoken bandicoot, saying, "Really? You're looking to change your name to 'Smashed?'

The threat caused Crash to hide behind his new ally, Dingodile. Not unusual that Luna threated harm onto the male bandicoot, but that was to keep him from teasing her and mostly Nathan.

"Let's go." The wolf girl growled before going to the next orb.

Not wanting to add on to Luna's visible fury, the others followed her to another portal to an era, which showed a large city.

"A utopia?" Nathan asked as he looked through the portal.

"Utopia?" Luna said, "Looks more like a distopia."

"What makes you say that?" Crash asked the wolf girl, who pointed into the portal to a sign that said, 'Neo York City.' Following that, a picture of Neo Cortex was seen, saying, 'Obey Cortex.'

"Very good answer." Crash smiled sheepishly as Nathan frowned at the signs.

Luna saw her ally's face and agreed verbally.

"I don't like it any less than you."

"What a problem!" Coco commented, which was agreed by her allies.

"EXACTLY when is this gonna happen!" Dingodile exclaimed loudly.

"You and I don't have that power, Dingodile." Aku-Aku spoke to the hybrid, "We better see the next era."

The others went to the last sphere through time and saw a war-torn landscape.

"Looks like a world war." Nathan guessed out loud to his friends.

"Which one?" Luna asked thoughtly as she looked at the era of war.

"I don't know." The young man replied.

"Okay," Coco announced, "we have four eras to choose from: two future eras and two past eras. Now for the big question: who is going when?

"Good question." Crash agreed, also thinking of the same question.

"Well, let's think about it." Nathan announced, "The past time periods should be investigated by humans, leaving them to me and Luna."

"Yeah!" Coco jumped in glee, "That means that I can go to the moon!"

Sighing, Nathan said, "Yes, you are but not yet."

Zipping to the portal to the moon, Coco stopped when she heard the second part of the statement.

"Oh, man!" Pouted the younger bandicoot as she folded her arms, like a child.

Realizing that Coco will jump into the portal at the first chance she would get, Luna whispered in Nathan's ear.

"Let her go; she'll go crazy if you don't let her go, Nathan."

"Are you sure?" Asked the boy with an cocked eyebrow.

"Got a better idea?" The wolf girl asked back.

"But..." Nathan tried to counter, but his thoughts told him that Luna was right, "Fine."

Coco heard this and went to the portal and jumped into it. The tiger cub followed the female bandicoot into the moon era.

"Don't worry about that kid; she's tough, and it helps her win a fight." Luna said with a grin.

"I know." Nathan replied, "Everyone, including myself, knows Coco's strength, but I fear that people mistake her for being weak."

"Figures that you would worry about someone who doesn't need it." Luna laughed out.

"Yeah!" Crash agreed with Luna, "Have you forgotten that my little sister is stronger than she looks?"

"Good grief! Get off my back!" Nathan yelled at his friends.

Crash backed off, but Luna just laughed more.

"Hey, I was only playing with ya!" The wolf girl announced, "Remember then I mocked you when you said you could beat me? Talk about a three course meal!"

Curious about the origins of Luna and Nathan's friendship, Crash asked the werewolf.

"Just what do you mean?"

Luna showed a toothy grin as she answered the bandicoot.

"Let's just say that I was a fool to think of Nathan as nothing more than a weakling."

"What happened?" Crash asked the girl, "Kinda weird to be eating in a fight."

"Yeah, kinda, but I didn't really eat anything until the end of the battle." Luna confessed.

"Really?" The bandicoot asked, "What meals did you get?"

"Three." Nathan answered before Luna admitted.

"Three?" Crash repeated the words, which was confirmed by Luna, who also said, "Three."

"Where did you eat?" The bandicoot asked.

Muttering in fury at first, then the wolf girl calmed down enough to answer the question that Crash asked her.

"My words, some crow, and pie."

Nothing made sense to Crash, but Nathan was helped to explain it.

"'Eating one's words' is an expression that people say when they had out if they're incorrect. The same can be said about 'eating crow.'"

"Oh!" Crash understood, "How about the pie?"

"Pie?" Nathan showed a grim grin, "It was humble pie."

Quite annoyed by Nathan's semi-bragging, Luna went to the portal to the war-torn era.

"Whoa!" Nathan quickly said to the retreating wolf girl, "Where you going?"

"Right to war!" Luna announced, "It'll give me less grief than you two!"

Then, the wolf girl jumped into the portal, leaving Nathan and Crash. Sighing loudly, Nathan said, "That girl's going to find out about that war is hell."

Usually, Crash was curious of Nathan's word, and the boy sensed it.

"Nathan...?"

"Better get going to the road era!" The human quickly said, retreating to the the portal that lead to the 1950s.

Very quickly, Nathan jumped into the orb, which disappeared, leaving Crash by himself.

"What EXACTLY happened?" Crash asked the mask, who said, "Now's not the time."

Getting no explaination, Crash went to the portal that led to Neo York City and leaped into the era, leaving the reptiles and the mask behind.


	8. Chapter 8

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Eight

Nathan, having experiecne in landing after going through time, landed on his feet, causing dirt to fly off in the road. The ex-Cortex looked around at the desert and everything in it: the mesas, the plants, the animals, and the road, which he was staying on.

"Hmm." The boy thought loudly, "Where are the vehicles at?"

Then, he heard the sounds of motors coming from down the road, causing Nathan to run off the road before a group of motorcyclists ride passed the boy.

"That's EXACTLY what you git for askin' dumb questions, if you're lucky enough!"

The dark haired teen looked behind him and saw a pair of leather combat boots, which was worn by a leather clad man. Surprised by the man's voice at first, Nathan's shock grew stronger when he saw the man's brown hair and blue eyes; the man's face looked like a male version of Luna's face!

"What's are you looking at?" The man asked Nathan, "Sure know it's not the road."

Hearing the comment, Nathan guessed that the man was a close relative of Luna. Then, he noticed the power gem on the seat of the motorcycle behind the guy.

"Wow! That gem!"

Nathan ran towards the gem, but the man grabbed the boy by the pants and lifted him in the air. Nathan dangled in th air, trying to get the gem.

"Hey, wait a mintue!" The male 'Luna' said, "You know something about the gem I found? Can you explain, man, 'cause I don't know anything about it."

Nathan heard this and realized that the man needed his help.

"Okay, man, just put me down, and I'll explain."

The man released the boy, who fell to the ground with a thud.

"Ow!"

"Oops! Sorry, man." The leather wearing man responded to hearing Nathan exclaim in pain.

"You don't have to worry." Nathan dusted himself off, "I'll live."

After that, Nathan told the man about the power gem, telling all that he thought was need to know.

* * *

Luna and Sash landed on their feet on the war-torn ground. As the duo looked around the area, the sound of exploding bombs came from the distance.

"Bombs, destoryed land, and the smell of blood in the air: classic signs of a war." Luna said as Sash sniffed at the ground.

"Can't things be calm?" Sash asked the wolf girl, depressed at the sight of land.

"Don't worry, Sash." The girl replied, "Each war is too busy to notice "pests," like us."

Then, a figure moved through the battlefield. The figure's scent told the duo of it presence.

"Figures, we'd get someone's attetion." Luna announced with a grin, while Sash added, "We mustn't get them invovled!"

"If you can escape first?" A voice with a French accent rang out from behind the duo, whom turned around to see the figure.

The man was in a tuxedo of the era with a black cape and a top hat on . His face had a thin, curly mustache, a monocle over an eye, and a calculating look on his face.

"Get away from us, or you'll end up harmed." The wolf grolwed at the better dressed man.

"Calm yourself, Madam." The gentleman defended himself, "I mean no harm."

"Harm: not likely. However, you're up to something." Luna hissed at the man.

With a laugh, the gentleman gave his reply.

"I have intentions about you two." The man admitted, "Just I do not trust you two."

The wolf and the girl looked at each other, showing their doubt.

_"Luna, we can't just go on any side-missions!"_ Sash announced mentally to Luna, who replied in their minds, _"You're quick to judge him; he might have a power gem or two."_

Keeping their conversation mentally and from the man, Luna started to talk to the man.

"So, what do you want from us?" The wolf girl asked, while she told Sash through her mind, _"Watch the master."_

_"Luna,"_ The silver wolf warned the girl, _"don't start playing 'Master Orator' now; we've matters to deal without getting invovled with this man."_

_"Not to worry."_ Luna grinned as she heard the man speak.

"I am hoping to offer your two this."

The man pulled out a power gem from his cape pocket. He took note of Luna's expression as he continued to speak.

"Of course, if you're not..."

"Pulling that stunt isn't a very wise move, monsieur." Luna announced with a crafty grin on her face.

"Quite the detective, Madam." Laughed the gentleman, "But are you so quick to trust me?"

"Right now, yes." Luna said with regret in her voice, "Time's not on our side."

"Agreed." The man's voice sounded upset, "I will explain on the way."

"Sounds good to me." The wolf nodded her head in agreement.

Unfamiliar people or persons caused Sash to be wary about Luna, and the French gentleman was no exception.

_"Luna, I like for us to go... without HIM."_

Rolling her eyes, Luna petted the wolf as she gave her silent reply.

_"Sash, it's not like we have a choice. Anyways, I've always wanted to work by this guy's side."_

Vexed by Luna's lack of concern, Sash followed Luna's lead as the wolf girl asked, "Let's go!"

* * *

Crash landed on the hard ground with a thud.

"Ow!" The bandicoot exclaimed as he rubbed his backside, "That's a rough landing."

"You can say that again."

Turning to the alley where the voice came from, Crash yelled in demand, "Show himself!"

"Hey, quiet!" The voice responded to the bandicoot, "You want O' Ballon Head to find us?"

"O' Balloon Head?" Crash asked out loud, thinking for a few moments before he guessed with realization.

"Cortex!"

"You got it, Little Me."

"Little Me?" Crash repeated before asking, "What do you mean by that?"

The answer that came was visual: a figure walked toward Crash, revealing himself from the shadows. At first, Crash saw the silhouette, which looked human, followed by noticing fur on the body, and finally, the form showed the animal-like form before the figure exited the shadows.

"You're in for a big surprise, Crash." The voice announced, causing Crash to yell back at the owner of the voice.

"Hey, how did you know my name?"

The voice laughed as he exited the shadows, surprising Crash by his appearance, saying, "Because I'm you."

The creature that claimed to be Crash's future self was older, had long orange-red hair, and wore a green vest, a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers. The green eyes showed the mischief Crash had, but it was mixed with wisdom from the years of adventures.

"Whoa!" The younger bandicoot exclaimed, "This is weird."

"I know." The older Crash said, rolling his eyes.

ZAP! Lasers almost hit the two bandicoots by inches.

"WHOA!" The past Crash exclaimed in shock, realizing that he was in enemy territory.

"Hey!" The future Crash exclaimed, "We gotta go!"

"No need for a second call!" The younger Crash announced.

"Come on then!"

Both the Crash of the past and the Crash of the future ran into the alley and reached a manhole cover. As the future Crash opened the way to the sewer, the past Crash started asking questions.

"What's going on here?"

With a heavy sigh, the Crash of that time looked at his younger self and gave his reply to his past self.

"Before you ask any questions, listen to this: I can't tell you anything beyond what was told to me in this time when I was you. Understand, Crash?"

Crash did not like to hear this from his future self.

"Why not, Future Me?"

"I don't think I can." The older Crash said, "Now, let's go to Cortex's lab."

"Why there?" The younger Crash asked.

"That's were the power gems are at."

"Really?"

"Duh!"

Then, the older Crash entered the sewer, and the younger Crash followed, knowing that Neo Cortex with the power gem was bad for the world and everyone in it. Everyone was counting on him and his future self to stop Cortex of that era and of his time.

"First thing, Little Me," the older Crash spoke, "people don't know about your trip to the future, so keep it queit in your time, understand?"

"Yeah."

"Great," the future bandicoot sighed in relief, "now here's another thing: since Neo doesn't know about the trip neither, he'll be easy to surprise."

Crash from the past laughed, liking the idea to scare Neo Cortex.

"Ha." laughed the elder of the bandicoots, "I thought you would like that."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"Oh!" The older Crash remembered, "Just one more thing: when we the gems, just enter the portal without question."

Keeping his curiousity, Crash asked, "Why?"

Sighing loudly, Crash of the future answered.

"Look at it this way: if Cortex kills you, anything you have did between your 'now' and my 'now' would disappear from the history books allowing Cortex to win. Understand now, Little Me?"

Crash had entered a state of shock, fearing that the older Cortex was going to kill him. Then, he resolved to enter the portal when he had to.

"Nothing personal, Little Me," the older Crash resumed speaking, "it's just that Cortex finds out about you, he'll stop at nothing to kill you."

"Of course." Crash of the past said, "Ol' Ballon Head would do something like that."

"Possible that he'll have special defenses to use against us." The future Crash said, "Question is how can we fight back. It's quite difficult to figure out."

"Right." The younger Crash nodded his head.

Then, the two Crashes ran to the lab of Neo Cortex.

* * *

Coco and the tiger cub exited the portal through time, and they found themselves in a dome with a great view of the lunar landscape.

"Wow!" Gasped the younger bandicoot, while the tiger cub heard a noise, turned around and hissed at the person.

"So, Grandfather was telling the truth about that story of the moon adventure."

Hearing this, Coco turned around and gasped at the owner of the spoken voice. The voice's owner was a human female in her late teens with the form, hair style and face like Luna, but with the eye color and hair color of Nathan.

"Who are you?" The bandicoot asked the human.

"Usually, I'm called by my given name, but you can me Nate." The human said in a noble way.

Very wary about the girl, Coco could not help herself from trusting her a little. Then, blasts hit the dome, shaking everyone in the dome.

"What was that?" Coco asked the human.

"EXACTLY my question." Nate replied, not knowing the answer herself.

The tiger cub covered its head with its paws, hoping to hide from the derbis that fell on them. At exactly the same moment, Nate grabbed Coco by the hand and dragged her to an underground part of the dome, which the cub saw and reacted by following them. Once Coco gained back control, Nate had taken her to a garage for spaceships.

"You're the only one who's smart enough to drive one of these things without crashing into anything." Nate announced to Coco and the tiger cub.

"Okay," Coco hesitated to asked, "but what's the battle plan?

"Zap 'em before they zap you." The human replied as she grabbed a white, one-size-fits-all, suit out off a closet.

"As I like the sound of that plan, how do I fly a spacecraft?" Coco asked as the girl gave her the suit.

Knowing that the bandicoot spoke the truth, Nate turned to the closet and grabbed a pair of connected googles and gave them to Coco.

"Bet these would help."

"Well, they're better than nothing." Coco replied after putting on the outfit.

"Don't worry, I'll be talking to you. If you need help, just call." Nate replied with a grin.

Everything that Coco knew about the human girl of the moon was small, but a strange feeling told the bandicoot that she could trust her. Figuring that she is the only hope for the moon colony, Coco put on the goggle and said, "I'm ready for launch!"

Giving a grin to Coco, Nate said, "Get to the ship, and I'll give ya the instructions."

With a smile, the younger bandicoot went to a ship, which the cockpit cover opened and entered it.

_"First, press the black button that says, 'Cockpit cover'; you can guess what that's for."_ Nate's voice rang in her ears.

Coco pressed the button, closing the cockpit. The next few instructions were to press the airlock button, do a basic systems check, which included weapons, and pressing the igintion button. Having these things done, Coco launched out of the garage and into space.

"Wow!" Coco gasped in awe, "I never thought I'd be flying a spacecraft in my lifetime!"

_"Just keep your head on. Things are bad here with that fighting menace out there."_

"Right." Coco responded to the voice of Nate.

Then, blasts from a laser just missed Coco! Keeping some of her cool, the young bandicoot said, "Nate, I've found him!"

_"Looks like he found you! Look out for any weaknesses of the creep, and you'll win."_

"Oh, man!"

Then, another voice reached Coco's ears.

_"Whoever you are, surrender now, and maybe I'll let you live."_

The raspy voice that gave the girm ultimatim was recoginized by Coco as N. Gin, Cortex's insane assisant, the same one that tried to kill Crash and Luna six months earlier in her time.

"Make your move, N. Gin!"

Then, missles flew at Coco's ship again. The young bandicoot manuvered from the projectiles, while inside the dome, Nate and the tiger cub watched in awe. Once the human girl saw that Coco was safe, Nate talked to Coco, who was wiping the sweat from her brow.

_"Prodigious evading skills, girl!"_ Nate cheered into Coco's ears, _"Space isn't ready you you!"_

"Thanks for that, Nate, but don't start cheering now." Coco said, "We still have N. Gin to deal with."

_"Quite a bit to worry about here."_ Nate agreed, _"The question is how do you stop him."_

"Right." The bandicoot knew that the girl was correct.

So, the younger sister of Crash Bandicoot looked at her opponent for any weaknesses, but she found none until she looked at the missles being released.

"That's it!"

_"Usually, I won't ask, but I don't understand what you're talking about."_ Nate announced to she-bandicoot, who gave her reply.

"Very well," Coco said, "Just watch."

Having no idea about the bandicoot's words, Nate chose to watch the fight unfold.

"Here we go!" Coco shouted, "N. Gin, get ready to lose!"

What Coco did next was a surprise to Nate, the tiger cub, and N. Gin: shie shot at the missle before their exited the robot.

As the robot exploded from the missles getting hit by the lasers, N. Gin exclaimed in fury, _"NOT AGAIN!"_

"EXPECTING A QUICK WIN?" Coco yelled through the lines, as Nate's expected transmission came to her.

_"You better get back in before... Uh, oh..."_

"Nate?" Coco asked, when another, much older man's voice spoke to her.

_"I think you better get in the dome as soon as possible."_

Coco obeyed as something flew from the ashes and scrapes of the exploded robot. Zipping above the lunar sufrace, N. Gin's escape pod went to a portal of time.

As Coco entered the bay area, she saw Nate, the tiger cub, and an old man, whom Coco recongized as soon as she saw him.

"Nathan!" The young bandicoot exclaimed as she exited the spaceship.

"As normal, you're quick to see things like that, Miss Coco Bandicoot." The elderly man said with a kind grin of his wrinkled face.

"But how?" Coco started to asked, but Nathan stopped her

"Don't worry yourself, Coco." The older Nathan raised a opened hand at her, "All answers will be answered in time."

"Grandpa!" Nate said, earning a reassured reply from the older Nathan.

"Don't worry. If there's one thing I don't forget, it's my friends."

Then, Nathan presented the power gems to the young bandicoot, who took them.

"Thanks, pal."

Everyone smiled at each other, when the cub started mewing loudly, getting everyone's attention.

"What is it?" Nate asked.

Then, she, with her grandfather and Coco, saw the sphere that serve as the portal through time.

"Figures that you two have to go." Nate said with a loud sigh.

"Well, Nate, it's not like you're going to never see her again." Nathan said in response to her grandchild's hidden sadness.

"Right." Nodded the girl, who was starting to show tears in her eyes, but she wiped them out of her eyes.

"Hey! I'm still here!" Coco was annoyed about the talking relatives, while the cub growled with her.

"Sorry about that." Nate turned to the bandicoot before she added, "Good luck on fighting off Cortex's scheme of taking over the world!"

"Hey," Nathan said, "I hope that you're not hitting Crash or the others too much."

"Just not enough to really hurt them." Coco smiled, "Bye!'

Then, she and the cub jumped into the portal, returning to the Time Twister.

* * *

Crash had followed his future self into Neo Cortex's laboratory in the converted New York City, keeping careful about where he stepped. After getting through the sewers and entering the lab, Crash saw the container that held the power gems he needed.

"Keep your eyes on the prize, Little Me," The future Crash warned, "but keep your ears opened; you don't know where the attack is gonna get ya."

"All right, Big Me." Crash nodded.

Looking around for any signs of danger, the two bandicoots advanced to the gems, until they were near the gems.

"Man, we made it!" Crash wiped his brow, "Now, I can get back in my time."

The future Crash heard this and turned to the younger bandicoot and said a quick "Oh, no," before the younger Crash grabbed the power gems, setting off the alarm. Possible that the older bandicoot failed to recall setting off the alarm or not, Crash of the future pulled his younger self, who pulled the power gems into his pockets. Quickly, both the future Crash and the past Crash managed to aviod the spike trap that was hidden around the the container.

"That was close!" A meek Crash said quickly upon seeing the trap.

"Right!" The elder Crash argeed with his past self before adding, "Soon, the portal will appear before us."

Then, a blast entered the room, nearly knocking the two bandicoots to the ground. The past Crash looked up and saw a figure that was very familiar to him.

"Nathan?"

Usually, Crash saw his friend, Nathan, as a young man trying to forget his bloodline as a Cortex and seeking redemption for his family's sins. However, this Nathan was older, looked wiser and seemed to have found the peace that his friend searched for since the day he was born.

"Very good time, Nathan!" The older Crash greeted the human male, confirming the younger Crash's question, "Thought you weren't coming this time!"

The older Nathan grinned and laughed before he answered his ally's greeting.

"Had a little talk to my father-in-law. He helped me to see that this fight's between us and my Uncle Neo."

Having heard this, both Crashs smiled at the man that was Nathan's future self, who noticed the Crash from the past.

"What's going on here, Crash?"

"Ha, what else: a crazy thing in the adventure." The older Crash grinned sheepishly, even though it was not his fault for bringing his past self to that era.

Not one to need X-ray vision to see what was going on, Nathan smiled before he said, "I wasn't expecting my best friend to replace me with his past self."

"You're not one to talk about replacing pals." The older Crash countered with a laugh, "Remember the time-"

"Wait a minute!" The older Nathan halted the trip down Memory Lane, "You have your past self here."

"I can't help it." Crash of the future grinned even more sheepishly.

Zapping lasers hit near the the group, telling them that Cortex knew they were in the lab. The trio realized that they needed to get the Crash of the past back to his era. Nathan shot at the robots until the attackers were destoryed.

"Time to go!" Nathan announced, grabbing the younger Crash.

As soon as Nathan grabbed Crash of the past, the portal to the past appeared, telling Crash that it was time to go.

"But I want to help you guys!" The younger bandicoot proclaimed, but Nathan of the future would not allow it.

"Sorry, Crash, but we can't risk destorying everything that we've done."

Crash heard this and realized that his future selves of him and his friends were right.

"Don't want to do that." The past Crash said, "Everyone wouldn't like that."

With a big sigh, the future Crash said, "If you want to know something, life can be very unexpecting at times."

"Figured that was going to be said, huh?" The past Crash grinned.

"Get out of her before Cortex finds you." Nathan said.

"Good luck against Cortex, guys." The younger Crash said before departing into the portal to the Time Twister.

* * *

Back in war-torn France, Luna and Sash had followed the gentleman thief to a building that was nearly destoryed by a near-by bomb. The thief told them that followers of her decreased rival were trying to revive her using the other power gem. With this information, Luna and Sash started searching.

The duo entered the building and looked inside, doing their best to be careful, but they could not find the followers. After a few minutes, Luna and Sash returned to the thief.

"Hmm, not having much luck, Madam." The thief greeted Luna in a somewhat mocking tone.

Luna, who did not want to hear the mocking, said, "I'd like to see you do better!"

"Very well." Grinned the gentleman, who walked to the wall and pushed on it, revealing a hidden door.

"Just like that..." Luna was surprised at the sight of the performance of the thief.

"This way to the followers." The gentleman annonced, allowing Luna and Sash to enter the passageway.

_"And to the followers."_ Sash mentally added, allowing only Luna to hear her.

After the females entered the passage, the thief followed them and said, "Be care on where you step."

Then, just after he said his warning, the females heard his slip on the floor and giggled.

"A minor setup." The thief said, recollecting his composure, "Nothing to worry about."

Keeping their thoughts in their minds, Luna and Sash "talked."

_"A entertaining guy, huh?"_ Luna asked, recieving an answer from Sash.

_"You can say that again."_

Soon, the soft glow of candlelight appeared in front of the group, telling them that they're very close to the rival's followers.

_"Maybe they're here?"_ Sash announced mentally to Luna, who spoke out in a whisper, "It can be a trap."

"Nothing said it was." The thief said quietly in sarcatism, "Of course, there is a trap."

Luna looked at the thief and asked, "A trap! Where!"

Then, voices were heard by the group of allies.

"What was that?"

The females realized that the thief tricked them to revealing their presence.

_"Perhaps, we were foolish to follow this man?"_

_"Quite the opposite!"_ Luna responded quietly.

Then, several cloaked figures arrvied at the area of the passageway and spotted the group.

"It's him, and he brought his whore and her pet with him!"

"Are you really wanting to get hurt?" Growled an outraged Luna, "Really to get hurt?"

Sash backed to the thief, who was both understanding about the fury but confused about the wolf's reaction. Then, he revieced his answer.

Luna showed her fanged teeth to the men, who advanced at the trio with drawn swords. They went after Luna first, who dodged the first blade and bit at it. The weapon scattered by the pwer of the of the girl's jaws. The tip was in Luna's fangs, and the rest of the sword was in the man's hands.

"Unusual...abilites." The thief said, just as surprised and shocked as the men that was attacking him and his allies.

The men backed off, and Luna grinned darkly, saying with the blade in her teeth, "Very good idea to back off."

Offended by the statement, the men advanced again. The result of that attack was the men ended up knocked out.

"AN EXCELLENT WORKOUT!" The wolfgirl said, forgetting that she was suppose to be quiet.

Then, more followers of the thief's rival came to them.

"Extra exersice? Fine with me." Luna cracked her knuckles.

"You seem to enjoy fighting." The thief grinned shyly to Luna, who gave a grave grin.

"I do."

Then, she attacked the extra members, who fought or fled. After the fight, Luna turned to the group and said, "Come on."

The others followed her until they with Luna found themselves in a make-shift alter room, which was covered with strange markings, followers that retreated from Luna, and a corpse and the power gem on an alter.

"There's the power gem." Luna stated, while the gentleman added, "And here comes the followers."

Zealous about protecting the dead body of their leader, the followers of the rival charged at the three intruders. While Luna fought off the followers, Sash become spirit-like, zipped to the middle of the room and grabbed the gem.

"Amazing!" The thief exclaimed in awe and shock, as Sash returned to him and Luna, who fended off the followers.

"That's Sash for ya." The wolf girl smiled as she kicked a follower in the gut, which that member tried to harm her with a pitchfork.

Then, an unnatrual moan was heard by all, ceasing all fighting.

"That's not good." Luna guessed, fearing how accurte she was.

"Bad news in a bad way." Sash said after removing the power gem from her mouth.

The corpse started to move in a jerkish movement. First, it got to its feet, keeping its head facing the ground for a few moments.

"Can't be good if a corpse is moving around." Luna backed from the followers and to the passageway.

"It is not." The thief confirmed Luna's statement.

Then, it lifted its head, revealing its grotesque face, and gave an awful howl, which shook the souls of the three allies.

"Aw, Good Lord!" Luna exclaimed with Sash.

Then, one of the followers spoke to the corpse.

"Lady Josephine, you are back from the dead."

Instead of responding to the leader of her followers, the corpse that was Josephine Balsamo attacked them. The followers scattered, hoping to avoid the attacks of the reanimated corpse. During the corpse's assaults, the thief, Luna and Sash tried to leave. However, Josephine's corpse noticed the trio trying to depart from the altar room.

Fury was in the corpse's voice as it howled that sounded like a name.

"Did it just shouted a name?" Luna asked the gentleman thief.

"Forget about that!" Sash yelled at wolf girl as the corpse advanced to them.

"Get back!" Luna returned to the fight by punching the corpse in its stomach.

However, the corpse stepped back a little before it attacked again. Seeing the advancement, Luna and her allies.

"RUN!" Sash shouted as she ran off into the passageway.

The group ran off as the corpse chased after the group. It was not long until the three exited the passageway and closed it.

"Just made it!" Luna wiped her brow in relief.

"It's not over just yet!" Sash announced, feeling that their troubles are not over.

Hearing this, the trio exited the torn building, when they heard the soulless howl of fury from the corpse of the master thief's rival.

"What are we gonna to do now?" Sash asked, knowing that the corpse would persue them for the power gems.

"That's a good question." The gentleman agreed.

Luna backed away from the building and said to her allies, "You two better get behind me."

Keeping the memory of what Luna did earlier in the fight against the followers, the thief listened and went walked a safe distance from Luna with Sash.

"Are you sure that your plan is going to work?" The master thief asked the young woman, who replied with a smile, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Of course, she would say something." Sash muttered under her breath.

Ignoring the silver wolf's words, the wolf girl turned to the building and saw the corpse coming from the passageway. Possibly thinking that her plan was a long shot, Luna changed her human face into the face of a brown wolf and released from her throat and mouth a powerful howl. The quaking building started breaking down and collapsing. In the howl-quake, the corpse of Josephine was caught in it, as the debris and was crushed by heavy pieces of the floors, the walls, and celilings. Once it was over, the building had completely collapsed on the reanimated corpse.

"Quite a throat you have, Madam." The thief gulped at the destruction that the wolf girl created as the girl's face returned to its human form.

Then, Luna turned around and smiled, but she went to her knees and grabbed her throat. Sash said upon seeing this and told the gentleman, "And that's quite the reason that throat isn't used often."

"Truly?" The man asked the wolf, who replied, "Yes."

Concerned about the girl, the gentleman went to Luna and picked her up in a bridal style and turned to Sash, saying, "We must leave now."

"Right." The wolf agreed, hearing sirens in the distance, "If Luna or I are captured, that'll be very bad for us and for time itself."

"Agreed." The thief said as he took Luna away from the fallen building, followed by Sash.

After a period of running, the trio returned to the area where the first met.

"Okay." Luna said after regaining some of her strength, "Please put me down."

"Of course." The thief said, obeying the wolfgirl.

"Usually, Luna's would try to hurt you for carrying you." Sash smugly smiled at Luna, who growled at her before she spoke to the wolf.

"Very funny, Sash. I hope you're amused by that, because..."

"Madam!" The thief quickly restrained the furious female, "You have very little strength left. Please, don't waste your energy on your ally."

Luna calmed down, but she was still very upset at her friend.

"What can I say? You've got a point."

"Luna, with your furies, no one needs X-ray vision to see that you're short-tempered." The wolf announced, earning an expression of annoyance and fury in a form of a glare.

"You two seem to be good friends." The gentleman thief guessed, "With the fighting between the both of you, I would not be very surprised that you were enemies."

Zealous about her and Sash's friendship, Luna wisely kept her mouth shut, earning a laugh from the master thief.

_"Smart move."_ Sash stated in her and Luna's minds.

_"Don't start with me, Sash."_ The wolf girl growled mentally at her friend.

Realizing something that the thief had, Luna turned to the gentleman thief.

"Hey, you still owe us the gems."

"Ha, I was wondering about when you were going to ask me about them." The thief smiled as he pulled out the gems.

"Thank you." Luna said as she took the gems.

As the thief gave the gems to Luna, the sphere portal through time appeared in front of the group.

"Time to go." Sash said, turning to the portal.

"Right." Luna agreed. Then, she turned to the thief and said, "Bye, and thanks for the gems and the fun."

With that said, Luna entered the portal, which disappeared, leaving the master thief in his own time.

* * *

Nathan had told his ally, who had the power gem, about it, leaving out certain details about or how Cortex was trying to obtain the gems.

"So, this Cortex loser is after these 'power gems,' and he's not shy about harming other folks to get to them?" The leather wearing man asked his new friend.

"That's correct." Nathan nodded to the motorcycle rider.

"Man, that's not good." The brown haired man responded, "Things can't get worse."

The roar of motorcycles were heard by the young men, who turned around and saw the gang that nearly ran Nathan over earlier.

"Don't be too sure." Nathan said.

Every member of the gang rode towards the two men. Nathan quickly went to his new ally's motorcycle and drove it from the man.

"Hey!" The brown haired motorcyclist yelled at Nathan before the motorcycle-riding foes passed him. Seeing this, the man recalled that Nathan told him that the gang was after the gems.

Meanwhile, Nathan rode through the area with the gang followed him. Figuring that the motorcycle gang was really Cortex's robots.

"I wonder if these guys are sand-proof." The dark haired boy grinned as he formed his plan in his mind.

Then, Nathan turned the bike around and pulled out his weapon, which Luna called a laser whip, and aimed it at the dirt. He did not fire until he was a few yards away from the gang.

"Gotcha!"

Nathan fired the weapon, sending a laser beam in front of the motorcycle gang. Once the beam hit the ground, it sent the whole gang into the air.

"Ha!" The boy screeched to a halt.

Nathan saw the bikers blow up into many pieces, proving that the gang were Cortex's robot henchmen.

"I knew it! Just like Cortex to do something like that!"

Then, Nathan heard footsteps on the sand-dirt and turned to see his ally of that time running towards him.

"You just missed it." The dark haired boy announced.

"Keeping the fun to yourself, huh?" The brown haired man panted, trying to catch his beath.

"I guess you can say that." Nathan chuckled at the tired motorcycle rider.

"Look here, ya thief!" The cyclist growled furiously, "My motorcycle's my only mode of transportation! No one's going to take my bike without my permission!"

"Of course!" Nathan said, trying to defend himself.

"However..."

"Huh?"

"Perhaps, due to the problems those guys made, I can overlook this once."

Hearing this, Nathan sighed in relief.

"Whew! Quite the frightening guy you are."

"Yeah, quite."

Right then, Nathan's friend saw the second gem in the middle of the parts of robot that was on the desert ground.

"What is it?" Nathan asked the slightly older man, who said, "Wait a second."

Nathan looked at the biker, who went to the second gem and picked it up. Shocked, the boy blushed a little as the brown haired man returned to him.

"Whoa!" The boy said to his ally.

"Unless you have something to hide about the gems, I think you better have this." The man said before throwing jewel to him.

Very quickly, Nathan caught the gem and said, "Thanks, pal."

"Hey, the name's Artemis, but I prefer to be called Artie."

Hearing this, Nathan became very confused.

"Why would your parents give you that name?"

"Why?" Artie repeated before answering, "My dad wasn't in the picture, so my mom named me; the weirdest thing is that everyone of my mom's side of the family all have names that means moon in any language."

"Family tradition?" Nathan asked, thinking he understood the answer.

"EXACTLY!" The brown haired man expressed his fury, "Can you understand how it's like to be expected to be one thing when you don't want to."

"I can."

"You can?" Artie asked, looking at the boy.

-Before Nathan could answer, the portal appeared, surprising the man.

"Well, I gotta go." Nathan said, turning to the portal.

"Hey," Artie called to the departing man, "I didn't know your name."

With a thoughtful laugh, Nathan spoke to Artie.

"The name's Nathan."

Artie smiled and responded to the answer, saying, "Good name for ya."

"Ha, thanks." Nathan smiled as well, "Good-bye."

"Good-bye, Nathan." Arite said before his new friend entered the portal.


	9. Chapter 9

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Nine

At the Time Twister, Crash dropped out of the silver orb. As the male bandicoot picked himself up and dusted himself off, he noticed that one thing was missing: his friends were not with him!

"Hey, where's everybody?"

The answer came in the forms of a certain colorful mask and a silver wolf. Crash saw this and started inqurring Aku-Aku about his missing friends.

"Where're the others?"

Sash, the wolf, was panting when she answered.

"It's not good."

Hearing the wolf speak, Crash jumped back in fright; he did not know that Sash could talk, despite being under the impression that Sash was intelligent and had the power to change into a spirit-like form.

"I know what you're thinking, Crash," the silver wolf said sadly, "and I know I should have told you, but now's not the time for talking!" The strength in Sash's voice grew as she spoke, "The others are in trouble!"

"What kind?" Crash asked.

"The kind Cortex and Uka-Uka could make." Sash replied.

"And worse," Aku-Aku spoke out, "they have seven power gems now."

The bandicoot turned to Aku-Aku and asked, "What? How did they do that?"

"By capturing the others." The mask answered. Then, he explained, "Uka-Uka managed to get the portals to manifest to where they're at. Then, he captured them with aura bindings and took the gems, only Sash managed to escape from them."

"That's not good!" Crash shook his head in disbelief. Then, he remembered the gems that he obtained and the ones Aku-Aku have.

"Hey, still have the power gems before the others got caught?"

"Yes," Aku-Aku coked a wooden eyebrow, "why?"

Crash grinned, showing his cleverness before he answered Aku-Aku, who wanted to know as much as Sash herself.

"Because I got an idea on how to save our friends."

The three huddled around as Crash whispered his plan to them.

* * *

In the center of the Time Twister, Neo Cortex and Uka-Uka were gloating their 'victory' to their prisoners, who were hanging by the aura bindings to each of the columns. Nathan, Luna, Coco, Pura, Dingodile, and Baby-T could do nothing to escape from the man and the evil mask, much less their boasting.

"Oh, someone kill me please!" Luna howled as if she was in pain.

Hearing this, Cortex turned to the prisoners, and his beady eyes landed on wolf girl.

"Luna, don't you know that I can destory you?"

With a cocky grin, Luna replied, "Of course, but I don't fear you, Fat Head!"

"What!"

"Well," Luna confessed as she kept her smug smile, "Aku-Aku has sixteen gems, while little old you have seven, and if I'm right, Crash has two."

"Yes!" Cortex cheered, but Uka-Uka quickly corrected him and Luna.

"Werewolf! _I_ have seven power gems!"

"Techincally," Nathan spoke out from his column, "you and Cortex have the six from us and the one you got before those. I'll let you figure out the rest."

The mask and the mad man thought about it for a moment until they realized what the boy meant.

"Cortex!" Uka-Uka yelled at the doctor, "If my brother and Crash Bandicoot find each other, they'll try to fight us!"

"That's right, Uka-Uka."

The evil mask turned to the direction of the voice and saw Crash and Aku-Aku. Seeing them, Uka-Uka grinned darkly.

"Well, Brother, you have found Crash Bandicoot, and I do hope that both of you have the gems I seek."

"Uka-Uka, we have nothing you need to have." Aku-Aku responded in a scolding tone, which displeased Uka-Uka, who said, "Brother, I'll get those gems, on way or other."

"Get ready," Cortex announced as he started up his hoverboard, "the world you now of is about to cease to exist."

Then, Uka-Uka, surrounded by a red-orange aura, lunged at Crash, but a blue aura covered Aku-Aku defended the bandicoot and got into a powerlock with his brother as their auras became laser-like. Crash was quick to avoid the masks and the beams as well as the red blasts from Cortex's gun. Cortex was firing at Crash from the safety of his forcefield.

"This is getting me nowhere." An annoyed Neo Cortex yelled in frustion. Then, he pulled out a mine and said, "This might help me get rid of that rodent, Crash."

Cortex threw the mine, which landed near Coco and the tiger cub, who were ready to feel the impact of the blast. The mine exploded, and the force hit the she-bandicoot and cub, as well as Uka-Uka, who was also hit by Aku-Aku's aura.

"Whoa!" A dazed Coco said as she and the tiger cub tried to regain her senses.

"Cortex, you fool!" The evil mask bellowed at the scientist, who just said, "Oops!"

Then, the kind Aku-Aku chraged at his brother, and the masks twhirled around the room.

"Whoa!" Crash yelled as he dodged the fending masks.

Cortex tried to shoot at Crash again, but it failed. So, he tried to bomb Crash again. Crash was managed to evade the blast. However, that cannot be said the same way for Dingodile, Baby-T, and the masks.

"Oy, Cortex! Count yar blessin's that Ah ain't down there, 'cause Ah'd give ya more than ya devesre!" Dingodile yelled at the mad man. The statement was followed by an agreeing roar from Baby-T.

The masks did not waste time to yell at Cortex as they surrounded themselves with their own auras and fought each other again. This time, the fighting had explosive results.

"Aw, man!" The free bandicoot moaned as he saw the aftermath of one of the whirling battles.

Then, Cortex threw a mine towards Luna, whom he hated from over a year for stopping him from getting five of the power crystals.

Luna panicked, knowing that she could die, because the binds prevented she from moving out of the way, changing her form to prevent excess damage to her body, or escaping the celiling beam if it should be destoryed.

Crash saw this and ran to her column and looked at the bomb and then at her. He asked the wolf girl, "What am I supposed to do?"

"The right thing!" Luna said.

"What's that!"

The tension in the air was thick, between the possible last moments of Luna's life and the brawling masks, but Crash got an idea.

The bandicoot spun around like a human-sized tornado and sent the mine flying into the masks, who were in the middle of another explosive result. The blast of the powerful auras clashing caused the flying mine to blow up, sending the masks flying backwards, Cortex fell off his hoverborad, and Crash was sent into the column that Luna was tied to.

"Whoa!" Crash said as he got to his feet, but he still needed the column for some balance. As he looked at the area where the Aku-Aku and his evil brother was fighting and saw the twenty-five power gems scattered on the floor.

"The power gems are MINE!" Cortex announced as he ran to the fallen jewels.

Crash heard this, put his index finger and thumb in his mouth, and let out a loud whistle.

"About time!" A voice rang out from the vent on the floor.

Then, a silver light flew from the vent, opening it to everyone and grabbed all of the gems. After that, the light went to Crash, who went through a slight transformation.

The bandicoot looked at his body, which was covered with the same strange markings like the last time he was fused with the power crystals, but this time it was the power gems and the markings were white.

"Oh, no!" Cortex exclaimed in fear, "Not again!"

"Cortex, you fool!" Uka-Uka's voice yelled at the madman, "Crash Bandicoot is too strong! We must escape!"

In no mood to agure with the evil mask, Cortex jumped into the hole in the floor, and Uka-Uka followed, swearing revenge by shouting, "I will be back, and upon my return, I will defeat you, brother, and your loyal allies as well!"

Crash heard this and started for the hole to the vent, saying, "Let's get them!"

"No!" Aku-Aku and Sash said, blocking the now-powerful bandicoot's path.

"What?" Crash asked his two free friends.

"We must free our friends first." The kind mask announced. Then, the silver wolf added, "And we all have to escape as well."

"What?" The male bandicoot asked meekly.

"That vent that I came from leads to the core of the Time Twister, and I messed with it." Sash admitted.

"So, that gives us little time to free our friends." Aku-Aku guessed.

"If that's true," Crash thoughtfully said, and then yelled out, "THEN WE BETTER GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Best idea I've heard!" Luna howled at the free members of the group, which the others agreed.

Glowing brightly, Crash summoned a power, which flew into the aura bindings, which held his friends to the columns. Luna, Nathan, Coco, and the tiger cub landed on their feet, while Dingodile landed on his backside, and Baby-T landed on the hybrid on the head.

"Oy..." Dingodile moaned, grabbing the group's attention. Luna was the first to reached the mammal-reptile and the infant dinosaur.

"Get off!" Luna scolded Baby-T, who hopped off of Dingodile.

The wolf girl helped the hybrid to his feet and led him to the group.

"Ready to go, guys?" Crash asked his friends, whom answered in a unison, "Get goin'!"

"Alright! Yeesh, guys, just asking."

Then, Aku-Aku flew onto Crash's face, and a light from the duo engulfed them and the group. In a flash, they were gone.

* * *

At the core of the Time Twister, Neo Cortex fell onto a part of the machinery. As he recovered from the fall, he moaned about his defeat.

"Defeated again! It's not fair!"

Then, he thought out loud his consideration for retirement.

"Maybe I should go off to a nice, big beach, get a nice, big drink, and a lovely woman with nice, big- Ugg! Bags of ice for this headache! Ow!"

Uka-Uka was less than interested abot Cortex's hopes for retirement; his focus was on his defeat at the hands of his brother, Aku-Aku, and his allies.

"This is not over, Bandicoot and Brother! I will be triumphant yet!"

Then, a large, reflective orb appeared over Cortex, but it shot out a jolt of energy at the evil mask, who was shocked, because he was being pulled into the portal.

"NO! This cannot be! I don't want to be imprisoned again! NOOOOOO!"

In spite of his strength, Uka-Uka was pulled into the portal right after Cortex. With the two villains consumed, the portal through time grew bigger and bigger until it engulfed the whole Time Twister machine.


	10. Chapter 10

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Retold by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Ten

A few days following the adventure, Nathan sat in his chair in his house on Wumpa Island, opened his laptop and started typing his journal.

_"It has been at least a week since the adventure through time, and everything's gone back to normal as it can be for an island filled with anthropomorphic creatures, but a few things are different."_

Then, the dark haired boy looked at a picture of the werewolves and allowed a smiled on his pale face before he retured to the computer.

_"One, Luna and Sash confessed their true identies to the bandicoots, Aku-Aku and the rest of the island. At first, most of the animals were fearful upon seeing Luna's wolf-like form, but Crash, Aku-Aku and Coco still saw Luna. This made the others less fearful and more exceping of Luna's true form."_

Then, the his communicator rang, causing the boy rise his wrist, pressed a button on the watch-like gadget and answer it.

"Yes?"

_"G'day, Nathan! The doc told me that you were busy with something important, and Ah was wondering that if Ah'd be any help to ya."_

"Thanks for the offer, Dingodile," Nathan answered, "but I'm doing alright by myself."

_"Alright." _Dingodile's voice sounded slightly disappointed, _"Ah'll be on me way then. G'bye!"_

"Bye." Nathan smiled as he pressed the off-button before he resumed composing his journal entry.

_"The second thing was Dingodile, an addition to the population of Wumpa Island. Dingodile was given a few strange looks, but Crash and Luna teamed up and defended him. Dingodile was granted acceptance from the islanders, much to his surprised, and so happy about it that he gave a strong hug to Luna and Crash, whom nearly choked to death. Now, he's helping Brio, which he was doing before Neo Cortex and Uka-Uka spirited him away and brainwashed him."_

With a smile, Nathan chuckled as he noticed the snow on his window still. The teenaged boy turned to notebook and added another part of his entry.

_"Third, Baby-T, the infant dinosaur, and the tiger cub, now known as Pura, were more accepted by the residents of the island. However, it's too cold for the reptile to stay here during seasons of autumn and winter, which is the season of this entry. So, Crash suggested that Baby-T could live at the volcano on N. Sanity Island. It definitely one of Crash's better ideas, an opinion that many animal islanders share. Now, she is there, enjoying the lava's warmth and scaring the grass skirts off of the Papu tribe. Pura is on Wumpa Island as Coco's new best friend."_

Pulling himself from the portable computer, Nathan thought about what to type next, when a knock was heard from his door.

"Come in." Nathan called out to his guests, who entered the house.

The boy turned around and saw Crash and Aku-Aku, and he greeted them.

"Hi, guys. How are you guys today?"

"Very well, Nathan." The mask replied with a smile.

"Awesome!" Crash answered with a laugh, "I've just learned that Luna can throw someone in my size halfway to the other side of the idea."

"How?" A worried Nathan asked, concerned about the wolfgirl's mood as Crash answered.

"She just picked me up by the shorts, climbed a tree, and threw me! It was awesome!"

"Not to mention that he landed in a pile of Wumpa fruit." Aku-Aku added, reminding Nathan realized that Crash was one to forgive and forget if Wumpa fruit is invovled.

"Yeah," Crash smiled upon remembering the landing with fondness, "that's the best part."

The mask and the human laughed, relieved that Luna meant no ill will towards the male bandicoot and vice versa. As Crash joined the laugh, a snowball flew through the opened door, which Crash forgot to close, and the ball hit the bandicoot on the back of the head.

"HEY!" Crash shouted as he turned to the door to see Coco and Luna laughing uncontrolably. Seeing the females, Crash dashed outside, saying, "You wanna snowball fight? You got it!"

As they watched the hero of the islands ran outside, Aku-Aku and Nathan laughed again before they continued to talk.

"It was lucky for us that we've managed to get back home in one piece." Nathan spoke to the mask, who answered, "Yes, the Time Twister was a disaster, but I do not want to talk about that."

"Alright," said Nathan with a sigh, "we'll talk later, when you feel better about it."

"Thank you." Aku-Aku smiled and flew to the door. Then, he turned around and said, "Good-bye, Nathan."

"Bye." The boy said as the mask went off as the door closed behind him.

Nathan smiled as he returned to his computer to finish his entry.

_"Finally, the Time Twister machine, as Aku-Aku described it, 'was a disaster' as anyone would agree. As for Neo Cortex, Nefarious Tropy, and Uka-Uka, their whereabouts are unknown, which is both a good and a bad thing at the same time. The good part is that we won virtory in this battle, but the bad side of it is that they could be working on their lastest scheme to conquer the planet. However, since the machine imploded itself, causing me to ponder a single question: What has truly happened to the villians?_

_"I'm not going to allow myself to wonder about it. I have more important things to about than my uncle's return."_

The boy save and closed the file with a smile, when a loud howl rang throughout the house.

"Luna..."

"Yeah?"

"Whoa!" The boy jumped and turned around at the same time, seeing the werewolf form of Luna that said, "Sorry 'bout that, Nathan."

"Please refain from doing that in the future." The boy responded with a glare in his eyes.

"I AM sorry, Nathan, so don't give me the family glare." The lupine-like human sassed at the boy, who backed from her, shocked at Luna's statement.

"The family glare?" Nathan asked fearfully.

"Yeah." Luna nodded, "Neo had the same look when he glared at me."

"Oh!" Nathan exclaimed at the realization of the family resemblence.

"Don't worry about it, Nathan." Luna placed a furry hand on her friend's shoulder, "You're very similar to your family, due to bloodties, but you're Nathan, not a member of the Cortex clan, an ex-student of the evil academy, nor the hier of the your blood clan. It's the who I like, not the what."

Hearing the growl-like lecture of Luna, the boy looked at the wolfgirl and said, "Thanks, Luna. I needed to hear that."

Smiling, Luna said, "Come on! There's a snowball fight, and I need another person on my team!"

"What about Sash?"

"She's on the other team."

Nathan laughed heartingly as he agreed with Luna.

"Sure, sounds like fun."

"Great," Luna jumped with joy, "let's go!"

The boy followed the werewolf outside, knowing that his uncle and Aku-Aku's brother were no longer a problem for the moment. Now, Nathan was going to enjoy his friends as he picked a handful of sand and snow, shaped it into a nearly sphere-like form and threw in good fun.

* * *

Meanwhile in a barren realm beyond space and time, Uka-Uka was having some trouble due to the fact that two of his underlings were fighting over him like babies, which were similar to the forms that Cortx and Tropy were in at the time.

"Give me the mask!" The infant Cortex demanded of Tropy as they yanked on the evil mask, "With it, I shall take over the world!"

"NO!" A shrill-sounding Tropy responded, causing Cortex to whine about the rebuff.

"Aw! Come on!"

Uka-Uka tried to escape the tag of war of the baby scientists, but the grip of both infants were very strong. He knew that he'll have to wait until the scientists were tired enough to lose their grip and release, but by the way things were going, that would be a while.

* * *

Back at Wumpa Island, Crash, Coco, Nathan, Luna, Sash, Pura, Polar, and even Aku-Aku were covered with slush made of snow and sand and sitting near a roaring fire.

"Now, that was a snowball fight!" Luna announced as she stretched her whole, human body.

"Ha," Coco scoffed, "it's fun when you're the one throwing blouder-sized snowballs.

"Hey!" Luna countered, "I'm not the one who sided with her brother in that fight!"

"Blood's thicker than water."

"Let's be thankful that Luna's fury isn't see in play." Nathan spoke out to the others, who nodded in agreement.

Hearing this made Coco glad that she was not planning to betray Luna in a war; a nearly-grown werewolf could kill someone.

"Don't worry about it, Coco." Luna smiled as if reading the she-bandicoot's mind.

The group smiled, knowing Luna's fury is under control caused a great relief.

As the girls giggled, Nathan turned to a window, followed by Crash, who asked, "What's wrong, bubby?"

"I...I don't know."

Seeing his friend in a depression, Crash quickly thought of an idea to cheer up Nathan. With swift timing, the male bandicoot went to the kitchen and grabbed a Wumpa fruit. Then, he returned to Nathan and split the fruit.

"Here, Nathan." Crash offered his friend a half of the fruit.

Nathan, slightly confused at the gesture, took the piece of fruit and said, "Thanks."

Crash smiled as Nathan was about to bite into the fruit. Crash stopped him by rising his fruit to Nathan's.

"To a time of peace?"

The young man looked at the touching fruit and smiled, saying, "To a time of peace."

"To a time of peace!" Luna howled with enthusiasm.

Hearing this, Nathan and Crash turned around and saw Luna and Coco holding a piece of fruit. Then, Coco, Sash and Aku-Aku shouted in a cheer.

"To a time of peace!"

The friends looked at each other and smiled, pleased with their friends were united. Turning to their friend and still smiling, Nathan and Crash made a toast with their pieces of fruit.

"TO A TIME OF PEACE!"

In unison, the bandicoots and the humans bit into their Wumpa fruit as they celebrate the new time of peace, knowing that Neo Cortex or Uka-Uka were not to return for a period of time, allowing them a chance to rest. As the snow fell onto the island, everyone was celebrating in their own way.


End file.
